Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on April 27, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Audio Transcript
Dismissed.
I invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Luke 10. Or if you want to use the Pew Bible, it’s page 921. Page 921. We’re looking today at who is my neighbor. Before I read the text, I’m going to tell you in a shortened version what we’re going to be looking at today.
We’re going to read the text and then I’m going to tell you what I told you I was going to tell you. Okay, so you got the outline here.
Basically, what we’re looking at today is two ways to having a right relationship with God, two ways to salvation. One way is right and the other way is wrong.
The way that is wrong is that righteousness comes by living according to the law. In the Old Testament, righteousness or a right relationship with God comes by doing good things and being a good person. That is wrong. That is not the way to salvation.
The true way to salvation is that righteousness comes by faith alone in a Savior who does for us what we cannot do for ourself. Salvation therefore comes through Jesus alone. Just as a means of introduction. Let’s just talk about the law for a minute. It can be very confusing to read through numbers and, and Deuteronomy and Leviticus about the law.
And there were actually three parts to the law. There was the ceremonial law that was basically advice about how to lead clean lives, how to be healthy. It’s stuff like if somebody has a runny nose and you get it on your hands, what do we know you should do? You wash your hands. Or if you’re somebody around, somebody has a deadly disease and they happen to die, and in the room that you’ve been sleeping in, it’s probably wise that you try not to spread what those germs for a certain number of days.
So that was the ceremonial law. It’s practical. There was also the moral law, and it’s the moral law that we continue to keep today. And the moral law had to do with being right with God and being right with others. It’s summarized today in the text where it talks about love the Lord your God with all that you have to give and love others in the same way that you love yourself.
That part of the law in the Old Testament we continue to follow today the moral law. But there was also the sacrificial law, where they were continually sacrificing animals. And we don’t do that today because that was meant to picture the need for a sacrificial savior. It showed the need that there had to be blood that was shed so that we might be right with God. It was all a picture of what Jesus Christ came to do for us and the cause.
The fact that no one could keep the law perfectly was to be a constant reminder to the Israelites and to the world that something more, something more than the law was needed in order to have a restored relationship with God. And in the law we find that even the priest or the Nazirite who was never to touch a dead body, sometimes they might find themselves in a situation where that happened. They might be riding on a horse and the person in front of them has a heart attack. It’s not likely, but they fall over dead. The priest or the Levite would have defiled themselves.
And it’s just a picture that no matter how hard we try, we cannot avoid sin. Everybody has the need for a sacrifice. In the passage today, Jesus is confronted by a man who believes that keeping the law can save him. And it’s going to seem like Jesus says, yes, you’re correct. If you follow the law, you’re saved.
But Jesus then tells him about a situation that is meant to cut beyond the physical obedience to cut to the heart obedience that God is looking for. Does the man who says that he loves God and his neighbor truly love his neighbor? And Jesus presents the narrative today to reach to the man’s heart.
It’s about a person who lives one neighborhood away from him, which is interesting that that person in that neighborhood becomes the hero of the story. And we’re going to find out that that person is not someone that the law giver admires. And we’re going to find that his religious friends who live in the neighborhood with him, they end up becoming the villains. So actually the enemy becomes the hero of the story, and the people that are heroes, his heroes, become the villains. The question is, can anyone truly follow the law?
And the answer is, it is actually impossible to follow it to the extent that we love God and others perfectly. If we were to love others, and we were to love God like we’re supposed to, then we’re going to see in the hero of the story a picture of Jesus, who is an outcast, who goes out of his way to give all that he has to save a dying person. And then he leaves that person providing for him while he is away, and promises that he is going to return. May we read Now Luke, chapter 10, beginning in verse 25.
Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
What is written in the law? Jesus asked him, how do you read it? And the expert in the law answered, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
You’ve answered correctly. Jesus told him, do this and you will live. But wanting to justify himself, the man asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Well, Jesus took up the question and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up and fled, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And in the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him. And when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, take care of him.
When I come back, I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The one who showed mercy to him, he said. Then Jesus told him, go and do the same. May we pray?
Heavenly Father, as we look at your word today, we thank you that you have given it to us. Help us to understand the richness of its meaning for those that are lost, but also for those of us that have placed our faith in Jesus Christ. That it teaches us not only how to become children of God, but also to live as children of God. Touch our hearts with things that we may need to change in our attitude and how we live, that we might be like your son. In his name we pray.
Amen. We start out with the great commandments.
They are, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. All of the moral law is about how to love God properly and adequately and how to love others adequately and purposefully and rightfully. We look at the law, don’t lust after another man’s wife. Who is that showing love to. To other people?
When it says don’t steal, that’s showing love to other people. Don’t lie. It’s showing love to other people. That’s One side of the moral law to love your neighbor as yourself. But the other side is, don’t have idols in front of you.
Take time to worship one day a week. All of those moral laws are about loving God with all your heart. The great commandments. What we have today here are two forms of righteousness. We have self righteousness.
We’re going to look at first, and then we’re going to look at God righteousness. And this man is an example of self righteousness. We’re going to read two verses here in the text and see that it says an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, teacher, what must. What are the two words there? I do to inherit eternal life.
And then verse 28 says, you’ve answered correctly. He told him, do this and you will live. But wanting to justify, what’s that word there? Himself, he asked Jesus, and who is my neighbor? The man asked a question that seems good, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
But the emphasis is there is on what he can do himself because he’s wanting to justify himself. The proper question should have been, how do I inherit eternal life? Because we don’t inherit eternal life by anything that we do. The gospel is all about that. Jesus came, Jesus lived, Jesus died.
Jesus. Jesus rose. There is no me, There is no me in salvation.
The answer to the proper question, how do I inherit eternal life? Is believe that Jesus is God’s son who came in the flesh. He lived a sinless life. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for the sin that I’ve committed. And he rose from the grave after three days.
It’s all about Jesus. It’s not about us. But part of our sinful human nature is that we usually prefer doing things the way we like to do things. Is that your preference? I mean, you like to brush your teeth a certain way, you like to drive a certain way.
You don’t like other people giving you advice about everything in the world. It’s just part of our nature. And the tendency is when it comes to the gospel, people say, well, I want to get saved the way I want to get saved. Instead of saying, God, how are you going to save me? We say, what do I need to do?
Our preference is to do things my way. Our preference is to remain in control. And our preference is that we’re going to get the accolades and the praise that, oh, yes, you’re a good person, you’re wonderful, you’re something. Obviously you’re going to heaven in Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden, they decided they didn’t want to do things God’s way. They decided what they wanted, to make their own decisions outside of his will.
But what Scripture teaches us is that people need to have a repentant heart, which means they turn from doing things their way to doing things God’s way. Or let’s make it personal. A repentant heart is me deciding I’m not going to do things my way, I’m going to do things God way. But people in general prefer saying, I am going to heaven because of what I have done. And they’d rather say that and hold to that than say, I am going to heaven not because I’ve done anything, but because Jesus has done everything for my salvation.
There is no me in the equation. Now there are other people, they’re a little more holy than that. And they say, well, I believe that I’m going to heaven because Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that he rose from the dead. But I’m also a good person. So it’s this Jesus plus idea that Jesus couldn’t do it all himself.
I have to do a little bit more. And that makes people feel like they’re being biblical. But it’s still back to I can do something to save myself. And that’s not what the Gospel says. Salvation is by faith alone, in Christ alone.
It is not Jesus plus what I do or even who I am. So the man asked a seemingly good question, but Jesus knew what was in his heart. And Jesus tells this incident, that may be true, it may have been a parable, but he tells it to the man to address the man’s heart issue.
We can never justify or make ourselves right with God by anything we do. But that’s what the man is asking, what must I do?
Verse 28 Again, self righteousness. Jesus said, you’ve answered correctly. He told him, yeah, if you can live the law perfectly, do this and you will live. But the man wanted to justify himself and he asked Jesus, who is my neighbor, do this and you will live. What Jesus is saying, if you are perfect, always in the past, and if you are perfect always in the present, and if you are perfect always in the future, you are righteous.
So I want you to turn to the person next to you and say, you are not perfect.
Now I want you to tell them I’m not perfect. Okay?
No one is perfect because we’ve inherited a sin problem. You don’t have to tell a 2 year old how to throw a fit. How many of you taught your kids how to Throw fit. You don’t have to tell a four year old how to lie because it just comes out. It’s in them.
So Scripture says that we have this inherited sin problem, but we also choose to sin day by day. We are sinful and we are sinners. There is no one self righteous. That’s what Romans tells us. Read it with me.
All have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. There is no self righteousness. That’s why we need a Savior. That’s why we need God.
Righteousness. Let’s turn to Romans 8 where we’ll look at verses 1 through 4. Let’s see what God’s righteousness is all about. Romans, chapter 8, verses 1 through 4. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those.
What are the next two words in Christ? I want you to see. It’s all about Jesus for those in Christ Jesus. Because the law of the Spirit of life, where does it say it is in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh. Who does it say did it?
God did it. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering. Jesus didn’t come and live with any sin in his life. He lived in our likeness. He actually had a body.
He had flesh. Which means he experiences everything we experience. But he wasn’t exactly like us. He didn’t have sin. He was sinless, but he was like us.
And he did this according to verse four in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Okay? We have to fulfill the law’s requirement. We are incapable of doing that. But when Jesus came, guess who fulfilled all the law’s requirements?
What’s the answer? Jesus did.
And because now we are in Jesus, that’s what God sees. He sees Jesus righteousness clothing us. Jesus fulfilled the law. He is righteousness. And Scripture tells us that those that are in him now wear his robes of righteousness.
That’s what God sees. Let’s look at the text kind of in a bullet point form here. First one is there is now no condemnation. Okay? That means that we can have complete freedom from sin.
We can miss the guilt of sin. We can miss the punishment for sin if we are aware. What’s the second point? If we are in Christ Jesus, it tells us the Law couldn’t do this because it was weakened by the flesh. Meaning because of our sinfulness we couldn’t follow the law.
But because we couldn’t follow the law in our weak flesh. The next point says, what happened? God stepped in and God did. What is it he did? He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
And he came as a sin offering. He paid the penalty for us. And he did this so that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled not just in him, but now it becomes fulfilled where? In us, because of what what he did. And us who no longer walk according to the flesh.
But we’ve given our life to the Lord. Instead of walking in the flesh, we now choose to walk where? To walk according to the Spirit.
Let’s turn now to Philippians 3, 7, 9 where Paul talks about God’s righteousness. And Paul’s going to tell us here that if anybody could have lived a perfect life, it was me. I mean, he was willing to brag about it before he came to know Christ. But he tells us this in verse 7 of Philippians 3. Everything that was a gain to me I have considered to be a loss.
Everything that he had done to live the law perfectly. He thought it meant everything, but he realized it meant nothing. I’ve considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of. Here’s what’s most important.
The surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Nothing can bring about salvation except for knowing Jesus.
Paul was himself an example. He pursued self righteousness, but he ended up finding God righteousness. What was it that Paul had gained that now he considered loss? What was it that he had surpassed in so much? He goes on to say, for we are the circumcision.
We’re the ones who worship by the Spirit of God. And we boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in the flesh. That’s what he says he is. Now. His confidence is not in the flesh, but it’s in Jesus.
But then he goes on to say what he bragged about in the past, although and now this is where self righteousness comes in. Because he says I, it’s back to himself. I used to have reasons for confidence in my flesh. And if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, well, I have more. I was circumcised in the eighth day.
I’m of the nation of Israel. I’m of the special tribe of Benjamin. I’m a Hebrew Born of Hebrews. And regarding the law man, I’m a Pharisee. I know my theology.
I’m up there and I’m following it. And I am so zealous that I was willing to persecute the church, put people in jail and see them killed because they went against what he thought was right. And regarding the righteousness that is in the law, he said that he was blameless. We’re not talking about blameless in heart, but what people could see externally. No one could find any fault in him.
Paul had every reason to brag and to think, I have written righteousness, but because it was at that time in himself, it was not God righteousness. We go on to read in verse 8, because of him I have suffered the loss of all things. And now all these things that I did, they’re not just unimportant. He says that they’re like what? They’re like dung.
I mean, they are completely worthless, of no use. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dumb. He put aside his self righteousness so that he may what gain Christ? So that he may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own from the law. Not a self righteousness, but one that is through faith in Christ.
He gave up his self righteousness to have God righteousness. The righteousness from God that isn’t based on anything I do or say or be, but it is based purely on faith.
We come to the question, now who is my neighbor? Jesus is talking to this man who thinks he has self righteousness. But Jesus is wanting him to see that he doesn’t have any righteousness at all. Jesus is wanting him to examine his heart to look for God righteousness. So we come back to the text.
Jesus took up that question and he said a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up and fled, leaving him half dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road and when he saw him, he passed on the other side. And in the same way a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him passed by. On the other statement, Jesus makes a statement. Then he tells this story that once again it may be true. Maybe it actually happened or maybe it was made up.
But the narrative is given to help the expert in the law examine his own heart. Because the expert knows in his head what he is supposed to do.
But Jesus is saying in every situation, do you actually do what you know is right to do? Now he doesn’t turn the expert in the law off. By placing an expert of the law in the story, he kind of removes the man from it. Instead, he places there a priest and a Levite. And these were men that the lawyer would have been friends with.
They would have been people that he looked up to. Who were these men? What was the differences between them? Well, all the Levites were descendants of Levi and they were to help in the administration of the temple. They cleaned it up, they collected the wood, they started the fires, they guarded the gates.
And within that tribe of Levi there was one family that became the priestly family. And the priests offered up the sacrifices. They did more specialized things, but priests could be Levites. But not all Levites were priests.
What did these two do? Two people that should have known the law even better than the lawyer did. It says that they saw him first. Now that wasn’t just a glance. Oh, did I really see that when I went past?
No, it means they saw with perception. They understood that this man was in some great need. Something awful had happened. They knew the need, but they made a choice to avoid the man. Now they may have been in a hurry, they may have had important things to attend to and they may have actually thought, well, it looks like he’s dead to me, I’m not going to stop and touch him.
Especially if I touch him, then I’m going to be unclean. Because according to the law, if you touched a dead person, then you had to separate yourself from everyone for a week. And maybe the priest or the Levite, they were going to cast out a demon, or maybe they were going to give some teaching at a synagogue. And they said, well, if I’m defiled, I can’t do this more important thing.
They passed on the other side. They ignored and they avoided him.
And like us, the expert in the law probably thought, well, the priest and the Levite were in the wrong. They should have definitely stopped to help the man. Or, or he might have been on their side. Well said. Well, maybe their actions were justified because they had more important things to do that becoming unclean would have hindered them enter a new person to the story.
But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him and when he saw the man, he had compassion. This Samaritan was not a Jew. This Samaritan was a half Jew. And you couldn’t picture someone more opposite and more different than the priests and the Levites. The Jews hated the Samaritans.
They were their next door neighbors. They lived in the town next to Them, but they would go way out of their way just to avoid any contact with them. It’d be like you’re here and you’re deciding you’re going for the winter down to Florida, but you decide, I’m going to go through Montana and Texas because I can’t stand the people in Tennessee. Okay, I’m from Tennessee, so I can say that. But.
But think how much you would have to hate everybody in Tennessee that you would go all the way out of there and not just run through the state as fast as you can. They really did not like the Samaritans. But here the story takes a turn because who we thought should have been the heroes of the stories become the villains. And this half breed who had a different temple that he went to, that didn’t follow all of the Old Testament, who had a different priesthood, who felt constant anger, animosity from the Jews, it tells us that he not only saw the man with perception, but what did he have? He had compassion.
And this word compassion means that he felt so much for this man that he was troubled in his stomach and he might have felt like throwing up. Have you ever felt that much compassion for somebody? You know what I’m talking about. He was deeply moved.
Would the expert in the law have had compassion for a Samaritan like this? Probably not.
And would the expert in the law act on that compassion in the same way that the Samaritan did? Probably not. You see how Jesus is speaking to his heart? Would you really love your neighbor as yourself?
We go to read verse 33 again. But a Samaritan on his journey, he came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. And because of that he went over to him. He bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. And then he put 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, gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of him. When I come back, I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.
He didn’t just stop to help the man with the flat tire. This is way more than that. He got his hands dirty. He used his own olive oil and wine.
He had his new Tesla there with a white interior. And he puts the bloody manware right in the front seat and gives him a ride. He pays for him and he says, I’m going to come back. This is again, it’s a picture of what Jesus does for us. The world in its system is Like a thief.
It may sound like it’s for us, but in the end, Satan wants to rob us of all we have and leave us for dead on the side of the road. But Jesus, who is despised and rejected like this Samaritan man, he comes into the situation and he comes to us with compassion. He bandages us, he takes care of us, he leaves us with help. And he promises he’s going to do what? He’s going to come back one day.
Who is my neighbor? Verse 36. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? Jesus has this man exactly where he wants sin. And the expert in the law who said, I love God and I love my neighbor, said, well, the one who showed mercy to him.
And Jesus just said, go and do the same. We go to Luke, chapter 6, verses 27 through 28, where we read. But I say to you who listen, love your friends, love your family, love those that are good to you. Love those that can do things for you. Is that what it says?
Love your. What’s the word? Enemies?
Do what is good to those who speak kindly to you, that love you, that have affection for you. No, do what is good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, that speak against you, and pray for those who mistreat you. Being a friend to your neighbor really means you have to go to the extent that you are a friend to your enemies, to those who hate you, to those who curse you and those who mistreat you. When we say, who is my neighbor?
There is no person out there that is excluded from that category. So the question that we have to all answer today, am I being a truly righteous neighbor? Do I love my enemies? Do I do good for those who hate me? Do I bless those who curse me?
And do I continually pray for those who mistreat me? Am I a righteous neighbor?
Just see in bullet form. What does a righteous neighbor do? The first thing is a righteous neighbor is alert to needs. This man didn’t walk down the road watching his cell phone so much that he was completely unaware of the needs around him. He was watching and he saw a need.
And when he saw the need, it wasn’t like he just thought about the need. He had what he had compassion. We need to have compassion towards our neighbors. And then it tells us that he got his hands dirty.
I mean, if you saw a bloody person on the side of the road, would you stop and run to help them? Or would you call 911 or even worse yet, sometimes we see in the news awful things are happening and people just take videos of it and they put it online. They’re not even calling for 91 1. But this man got his hands dirty. He offered physical assistance.
In the same way that Jesus came as a hands on savior for us, he also gave up his time. Wasn’t just changing a tire for 30 minutes, he gave up the rest of that day through the night. Whatever he was planning to do, wherever he was going, became unimportant to him. He was willing to drop it to give his time. And then he didn’t just leave it at that.
A couple of days later, he did what he followed up. He came back to check on the man. That’s what it means to be a righteous neighbor. We allow the needs of others and meeting those needs to interrupt whatever plans that we have, we’re hands on in doing it. We even give up our own comfort.
He, instead of riding his animal the rest of the way, he walked so that that man could ride on his animal and he was willing to share his resources. He was financially involved. Again, this is a picture of what Jesus does for us when he comes to save us. And the thing about being a righteous neighbor is you’re not righteous because you act this way. You’re righteous because you’re in Jesus Christ.
Because there’s no way that we can all live this way except we are in Christ. And then his spirit empowers us and leads us to live lives like this. Am I being a righteous neighbor? We come to two application questions at the end. The first one is, are you pursuing self righteousness or God righteousness?
Is your faith only in Jesus Christ alone or is it in yourself alone? Or are you a little holier than that, but misguided and thinking, yeah, it’s in what Jesus did. But I’m still earning my salvation by doing good things. And yes, we do do good things. We’re supposed to, but that does not earn us salvation.
What Jesus did for us on the cross is completely able to meet every need that we have. We cannot add anything to it. And if we think that we can add something to it, we’re cutting him down. We’re not appreciating his gift for us. And the next question, are you being a Christian neighbor, do you have compassion?
Are you willing to give up all the things for others that Jesus is willing to give up for us? If you’re not certain about that first question, I would just invite you as you leave today, pick up this little brochure it says what is the gospel? Because it goes over again how to know what it means to have God righteousness and not self righteousness. And there are people around with name tags on Be more than happy to stop whatever we’re doing to talk to you today. But then, for those of us today that do have God righteousness, we are in Jesus Christ.
The question we need to ask ourselves Are we truly being Christian neighbors or is there something that we need to think about more we need to commit to? We need to ask the Spirit of God to empower us to be like Jesus in this world because we are his hands and we are his feet. According to scripture. Kelly Jo is going to be coming and leading us with the worship team on a song today and these are the questions you need to think about. I’m just going to ask that you remain seated.
You may just need to pray and ask God, what do I need to do today? Or you may enjoy the song and want to sing out in thanksgiving to the Lord. That’s up to you. But may we bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, help us to examine our lives for whatever need it is that we have.
Guide us by your spirit, Father, to know what the decisions and the commitments are that we need to make to being more like your son or for the first time, coming to faith in him. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.