Just Like Jesus

LUKE 10:30-37 "JUST LIKE JESUS"

A) This is one of the most familiar parables that Jesus taught called "The Good Samaritan."

* The interpretation is evident! * Christ was trying to get across to a certain Jewish lawyer the

truth about neighborly kindness!

* His main teaching in this story is that the Samaritan was a neighbor to the dying man by the

road! * As far as I know, that’s all He meant to teach!

B) A parable normally has one central teaching!

* Sometimes we attempt to make it mean something far different than its basic lesson.

* This may be one of those times! * However, I do believe that this story has a most wonderful

symbolic application to man and his life in this world.

C) Therefore, I’d like to take it out of its context and use it as a figurative story,

* That has meaning much deeper than the physical experiences of the traveler from Jerusalem

to Jericho. * I think you will see in this man a figure of all men!

* The road he traveled is the same road traveled by you and me!

(1) A DOWNHILL ROAD - V.30! * This could have been any man! * Rich, poor, good, bad,

* Educated, ignorant, important, unimportant, black, white, any man - He’s a type of all men!

A) "Went down from ..." * Geographically the road that led from Jerusalem to ... was downhill.

* From an elevation of 2500 ft. in Jerusalem, the road ran down into the Jordan Valley where

Jericho was located. * The road of life, traveled by all men, is a downhill road!

* Men and rivers take the way of least resistance and that is always downgrade!

* It takes no energy to coast downhill! * Illus. Automobile out of gear on the side of a mountain!

* Freewheeling, it will gain speed all the way down! * A ball placed on an unleveled surface will

roll downwardly, faster and faster pulled by gravity to the lowest point!

C) So it is with man! It is as if I were placed at birth on the side of a hill.

* Down that slope I began to roll before I was conscious of what was happening.

* When I came to myself, I was well on my way and picking up momentum down the road of life.

* A twig cast into a stream is caught in the current and carried downstream all the way to the sea!

* It takes no effort to float! * Even so, men caught in the current of life are carried on to a destiny!

* This river of natural life empties itself finally in the lake of fire!

(2) JERUSALEM TO JERICHO! * The road in the story led from Jerusalem to Jericho.

* Jerusalem to the Jew was the city of God! * It was the heart of his religion!

* The center of his culture, the capitol of his country - It was the place where God dwelt!

A) In Jerusalem was the Temple, in the Temple was the Holy of Holies!

* In the Holy of Holies was the Shekinah glory, the symbol of the presence of God!

* When Daniel prayed in Babylon, he raised the window, looked toward Jerusalem and called

upon Jehovah! * To Daniel, God’s dwelling place in this world was in Jerusalem!

B) But this man wasn’t going to Jerusalem! * His back was turned toward the city of God!

* He was headed toward another city ... Jericho! * Jericho was a wicked city and very worldly!

* In NT times, it was the favorite holiday ground for royalty! * It was a place of lust and sin,

* The dwelling place of 10,000 demons, a city of great wickedness!

C) Here was a man who had left God and set his face toward the godless city of the world!

* Isn’t that typical of natural man? * Man does not seek after God, man runs from God!

* Men are not trying to find God, they are dodging God - Rom.3:11 "There is none that ......."

* Man is not climbing his way back to God, he is coasting downhill farther & farther from God!

* He’s not becoming better and better, but worse and worse!

D) Man is not interested in spiritual things, he’s concerned with worldly things!

* His ambitions, plans, motives, are all slanted toward this world!

* He is living for Jericho, its pleasures, prestige, position, and popularity.

* He has left fellowship with God in Jerusalem and is rushing on to indulge in the sins of Jericho!

E) At the top of the hill is Jerusalem, the city of God ... Heaven,

* At the bottom of the hill is the eternal darkness of hell!