A Good Samaritan Heart

1. Lesson Intro

a. Can you name some famous neighbors

i. Tim “Tool Man” Taylor – Wilson

ii. Ricky and Lucy Ricardo – Fred and Ethel Mertz

iii. Daren & Samantha Stevens – Abner ad Gladys Kravitz

iv. jerry Seinfeld – kosmo Kramer

b. Scripture calls us to be good neighbors, but what does that mean..

2. Encounter

a. (Lk 10:25) " On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”"

b. (Lk 10:27) "He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ (Deut 6:4,5)

i. Part of the shema, repeated twice daily by pious Jews from ancient times even to today.

c. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Lev 19:18)

3. Who is my neighbor?

a. The lawyer asked this question to try to justify himself.

i. Certain people are my neighbors and others are not.

ii. Certain people deserve my love and others do not.

b. But Jesus responded to this question with a story

4. Story

a. Journey from Jerusalem to Jericho

i. 20 miles of mountainous, rocky trails descending 3000 feet from the hills of Jerusalem to the Dead Sea

ii. Isolated, barren and unprotected territory where bands of robbers roamed and terrorized travelers.

iii. This traveler was acousted on the road and was left clinging to life.

b. Two witnesses

i. A priest and a levite both came along and passed on the other side of this man

1. Many have questioned why they did this

a. Were they in a hurry?

b. Were they concerned about becoming unclean before their temple service?

2. The bottom line was that theses two religious leaders failed at this important spiritual test.

c. The Samaritan

i. A Samaritan passed by as well.

ii. The Jews had a very contentious relationship with the Samaritans.

iii. Each ethnic group through the worse of the other there was no anticipation that this Samaritan would do anything good for this dying Jew.

iv. But Jesus spends more time talking about the actions of this Samaritan than he did about the priest and levite together.

v. We can learn how to love our neighbors from the actions of this Samaritan.

d. heart of compassion

i. (Lk 10:33) "But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him."

ii. Word origin - To suffer with

iii. Frederick Buechner "Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else’s skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too."-

e. A heart of friendship

i. (Lk 10:34) "He went to him. . .”

ii. (Lk 10:31) "A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side."

iii. Some years ago two Princeton University psychologists, John Darley and Daniel Batson, decided to conduct a study inspired by the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. The only thing that really mattered was whether the student was in a rush. Of the group that was in a rush, 10 percent stopped to help. Of the group that had time to spare, 63 percent stopped. (The Tipping Point)

f. A heart of healing

i. (Lk 10:34) "He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine.

ii. (Mt 9:12) "12On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

g. A heart of sacrifice

i. ((Lk 10:34-35) "He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’"

Pastor David Jeremiah tells a story about Bob Pierce.

Pierce had advanced leukemia. But he went to visit a friend in Indonesia before he died. As they were walking through a small village, they came upon a young girl lying on a bamboo mat next to a river. She was dying of cancer. And she only had a short time to live.

Bob was upset. He said, "Why isn’t she in a clinic? Why

isn’t someone taking care of her?" But his friend explained that she was from the jungle. And she wished to spend her last days next to the river, where it was cool and familiar.