Sermon Central
-
On The Road To Becoming A World Changer
Contributed by Mickey Bell on Dec 28, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: We need more World Changers who are willing to do whatever it takes to present Christ to others.
One the Road to becoming a World Changer!
The Setting:
We are walking down a roadside between Jerusalem and Jericho. An area that is considered dangerous but one that is often traveled by many people. This is The exact same road in which this story unfolds.
Summary:
A certain Jewish man is stopped on this road by a band of robbers. They stripped him and beat him before taking his possessions. Have you ever had a bad day?
----------The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.
---------- A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his walkman.
---------- An Iraqi terrorist didn’t pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was a bomb; he opened it and was blown to bits. Talk about having a bad day.
But what happened with the robbers is not the real tragedy of the story. When you think it couldn’t get any worse, well it does.
The Bible tells us that three men passed by on this day when this bad incident occurred. There could have been more people but Jesus only shares three men who makes in impact in the life of this injured individual.
A man who is in need...one who needs medical attention.
A man who needs some support
A man who is in pain
A man who is hurting
A man who can’t help himself
A man who is having a very, very bad day
So Jesus in this parable which sounds like the opening of a bad joke tells us about the first man who comes along and notices this Jewish man who has been overtaken by thieves. And we find that this story is far from being funny.
The Priest: supposedly a man of God. To most, he is regarded as the man you can go to when you have problems in your life. For the injured man, the Priest is also a Jew. So he’s one of his own.
We don’t really know what was going through the head of this priest as he traveled this road on this day but here’s what we do know.
1. by chance he came by – a planned occurrence
2. the priest saw him
3. he passed him by
Before we pass judgment on the priest, let’s see if we can imagine what he must have been thinking:
“I’ve been serving God all day and I am tired”
“I am ready to get home so I can just relax”
“You know, the robbers could still be around”
“Why should I put my life in jeopardy for this man?”
“It’s not my fault he was attacked”
“You know, I don’t really know who this man is...”
“Why should I stop, he doesn’t go to my church”
All could be valid points of interest. Some could even have been used by you one time or another. But I think we could all agree that these statements are nothing more than just “excuses”.
A second man comes into the picture. The Bible says this man did the exact same thing as the priest.
He walked by
He saw the man
He kept walking
The Levite: What could this man be thinking? Could we dare to venture that he had something else on his mind?
“Maybe he had a date with his wife”
“He could have been on his way to a ballgame”
“He could have had friends coming over for dinner”
“Maybe, he had to hurry home to get that phone call”
I am not sure about a lot of things concerning the Levite but the one thing for sure; he didn’t take time to stop.
The story is about to take a turn. Finally someone is going to come to the aid of this poor Jewish man. And what do you know; the one man that stops is a Samaritan.
What you may not realize is that the Samaritans and the Jews were enemies.
John 4:9 “The Samaritan woman asked Jesus, ‘How is that You being a Jew ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman? (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans)
John 8:48, the Jews even told Jesus that since He was a Samaritan that he was full of demons.
