Scripture: Luke 10: 25-37; Psalm 82 and Amos 7:7-17 (Proper 10)
Title: Inheriting Eternal Life
Proposition: In this passage Jesus answers the question - How can we inherit eternal life. 1. By having the right Vertical Relationship - Loving God with all your heart, mind and strength 2. Having the right Horizontal Relationship - loving your neighbor as yourself
INTRO:
Grace and peace this morning from God our Father and from Jesus Christ His Son who came to take away the sin of the world!
This morning, take a moment and think about the following questions for a minute or two.
+ WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE TRUE MEANING OF LIFE HERE ON EARTH?
+ WHAT IS THE MEANING OF YOUR LIFE IN PARTICULAR?
+WHY DO YOU THINK YOU ARE LIVING RIGHT HERE AND NOW?
+ HOW CAN YOU MAKE SURE THAT YOUR LIFE HAS MEANING?
Those are some of the questions that our lawyer no doubt was struggling with in Luke 10:25 - 37. He understood that he only gets one chance to live this life here on earth and he wants to do it in such a way that at the end of it he is offered eternal life. His philosophy and theology of life could be summed up this way:
+He believes in God
+He believes that God desires to grant him eternal life
+He believes that what he does in this life will help determine if he will in fact experience eternal life
+He believes if he lives the right way then the LORD will allow him to inherit eternal life
I think all of us here this morning would have liked this man. We would have appreciated his straight forward thinking and straight forward questions. He doesn't want to mess around and miss out on his opportunity to inherit eternal life. He wants to know from Jesus what He should do.
I deeply appreciate St. Luke for sharing with us this story. Many of us here this morning want to also know the answer to life that this lawyer was asking. We don't want to mess around with our lives and find ourselves outside of God's will and not being able to enjoy eternal life. We can look at the stars in the sky and the world all around and know that there is more than just this human existence. There is something deep in our inner core that tells us that there is more. There is more than just our 85 years or so of life here on planet earth.
We want to live forever and ever and ever. We too want to inherit eternal life. So, we come to this passage with our hearts, minds and souls open. We want to make sure that we understand perfectly clear what Jesus told this lawyer and do them.
When I was around ten years of age, our family got our first color TV set. Up to that time we only had a black and white TV. That was okay because the majority of TV shows at that time where filmed in black and white. However, all kinds of shows were now being filmed in color and dad wanted a color TV. It was a big day in our household.
We had a cousin that worked on TV's so he came over to make sure everything was working properly. Dad wanted everything just right so that we would have the best TV viewing possible. I remember watching him as he worked on getting all the right colors lined up. I also remember at some point he started working with the vertical and horizontal settings. If he turned these little knobs one way the picture got all squiqually and out of focus. But as he worked with it he would take all the lines out of suddenly we had this amazing color picture. That night we were able to watch all of our favorite shows for the first time in color. It was incredible!
After a while we all learned how to use those two little buttons - the vertical and horizontal settings. Every so often when we turned the TV on either the vertical of the horizontal lines would be all fuzzy and out of alignment. You couldn't watch TV. So, you would have to turn those little knobs until both the vertical and the horizontal were in proper alignment.
When you look at Jesus' complete answer to the lawyer it really comes down to the same thing. You have to make sure that your own vertical and horizontal relationship are in the right and proper alignment. That is to say, you have to make sure that your Vertical (GOD) relationship and your Horizontal (loving your neighbor as yourself) are both in proper alignment.
Jesus' answer to that man is the same answer this morning He would give to any of us that would ask him the same question - "Jesus, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
I. Jesus tells us first and foremost we must have our Vertical Relationship in the Right Alignment - we must love the LORD our God with all our heart, soul and strength.
Verse 27 tells us that the lawyer already knew the right answer - he immediately referred back to the oldest and greatest commandment of the Mosaic Covenant. He referred back to what is called the first part of the SHEMA - Deut. 6:4-9.1 More specifically he referred back to verse 5 of the Shema - "You shall love the LORD your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Here, St. Luke gives us a more expanded translation of that passage when he splits up the concept of "might" into the combo words of "strength and mind". He helps us to understand what the original meaning of "might" had for ancient Jews.
This commandment is a holistic commandment. It is one that has as its foundation, a plan, a purpose and a passion. It is not a commandment that we simply say once and then do nothing. It is not a passive commandment. It is one that as you look at each of those words - HEART, SOUL, STRENGTH, and MIND you begin to understand that it will actively involve every part of a person. It will involve both the inner and outer parts of an individual. Nothing is to be held back or untouched. A person's heart, their desires, their soul, that is to say those parts that allows them breath, to have energy, to have desires, to have intelligence - every part of that and more is required. The LORD wants us to love Him with every fiber of our being.
It's easy for us to read verses 27 - 28 and gloss over it and check it off. It's easy to say - YEP, I have done that. What's next.
It is until you really examine what Jesus is saying here and you understand that each day when Jesus and His Jewish friends got up in the morning one of the first things that they would say is the SHEMA. Each day before they would even have breakfast they would say out loud - "Hear O Israel, the LORD your God is One. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and strength." They would start each and every one their days by putting their vertical relationship with God in proper alignment.
The same thing would happen before they would go to sleep at night. Before they would close their eyes at night they would once again quote Dt. 6:4-5. Fourteen times a week, every week. 730 times a year, every year they would quote these verses and even more to themselves. The Shema would become to them as natural as breathing.
Each morning, each evening the same thing. Each person they would have business with that day would have done the very same thing. Their scripture reading might be different, their prayers may contain different words but every Jew, every morning, every evening would quote the SHEMA and remind themselves who God is and how one should be in relationship with GOD. Every day they would remind themselves that above all things they should love God with all their heart, their soul and their might.
For the Jews knew that a proper relationship with the LORD is what gives our life here on earth - LIFE . It is what makes this life - ABUNDANT AND FULL. You and I were designed to love, but to love well, we must love the right person. And that right person first and foremost is the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY.
Everything hinges on this. How we treat people, how we live, what we do, how we do what we do. Everything hinges on how fully we fulfill this first commandment - You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
So, right now, let's try a little experiment. Let's try to say this verse and truly mean it. Let's say these words to ourselves:
+LORD, right now I love you with all my heart - all my desires
+LORD, right now I love you with all my soul - all my emotions, with all my breath
+LORD, right now I love you with all my might - all my intellect, all my physical strength
Not as easy as it looks is it? Did you feel like even while you were saying it that you might be holding back a little? That in your heart you wanted to say it with total abandonment but in your mind you were wondering if what you said was absolutely the truth and the whole truth?
We know that it's not impossible or else God would not ask us to do it. The LORD is not going to ask us or command us to do something without giving us the ability to do it. We also know that Jesus reaffirmed this commandment by telling the lawyer in verse 28 - "You have answered correctly, do this, and you will live."
So, it's both possible and it has been reaffirmed here in the New Testament. But it is not easy nor can we love the LORD with all our heart, soul and might without a plan, a purpose and passion. It is not something that is just going to happen in our lives. It's not something that we can just take for granted.
Rather, this commandment sets for us a life goal. It sets for us an attitude and a lifestyle that we must constantly be working on. Our lives are better when our vertical relationship with God is in proper alignment. That's just a fact. And it's a foundational fact. Our relationship with the LORD is the foundation in which all of our other relationships center. When our God relationship is good, then all other relationship will become even better. When our God relationship is bad, then all other relationships begin to fall apart.
To help us in this area, perhaps we could plan on reading Dt. 6:4-5 a few times each day this upcoming week. Perhaps we could write out that passage and put it on our refrigerators, on our bathroom mirrors or on the dashboards of our cars. That way we could see it and make sure that each day our vertical relationship with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY is in alignment and that it growing deeper and deeper each day.
I don't want us to gloss over this very vital passage of scripture this morning. I don't want you to miss its eternal importance. Our eternal life depends on us getting this relationship in alignment. This has to be our #1 priority in this life. Everything is dust and rust. If we don't get this relationship in order and keep it in order then nothing else matters. Who cares if you have all the power, possessions and prestige in this life if at the end of time you end up in a Devil's Hell?
This is one commandment therefore that comes with a great deal of home work. It comes open ended. This is not something we do and then check off the list. If it was then for thousands of years Jews would not have made it a daily habit to repeat it every morning and evening. They did and still do so because it is so easy for us to get our vertical relationship with God out of whack. It is so easy to commit the same sin as Samson did years ago. He slowly, very slowly began to take the LORD for granted and it cost him dearly. Perhaps the saddest verses that we could ever read in the Bible are the ones we find in Judges 16:20 - "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But Samson did not know that the LORD had left him."
Samson took his relationship with the LORD for granted. He was raised on the SHEMA. He was raised to say it every day. He knew its importance and he knew how vital it was to love God with all his heart, soul and strength. But Samson got lazy. He thought that once he had the anointing of the LORD in his life he would always have the anointing of the LORD in his life. Samson was physically strong but he was spiritually weak. He forgot that his strength was not his hair but his relationship with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. He played fast and easy and chose to rebel against the LORD. He put his relationship with the LORD on the back burner and it cost him dearly.
We see the same thing happening in the Church of Ephesus. Ephesus was one of Paul's great churches. Historians tell us that it enjoyed the leadership of men like St. Paul, St. John and Timothy along with other great leaders. For a period of time, even Mary the mother of Jesus was said to be a part of its congregation. This was one of the great New Testament churches.
However over time they began to allow their vertical relationship with the LORD to get out of alignment. They started focusing on other things than their love relationship with the LORD. Their spiritual passion began to wane. Their desire for the LORD started to slip and before they knew it the LORD JESUS HIMSELF was warning them that if they did not get it back together they would lose their lamp stand. That is to say, they would lose the presence of His Holy Spirit and without the presence of the Holy Spirit a person, a people and a church is dead. Without our vertical relationship with God being in the right order everything we try to do will fail.
II. Jesus goes on to tell us how that we must make sure that our horizontal relationship are in proper alignment.
We must always remember - Our #1 mission is to make sure our Vertical relationship with God is in proper order. Then we must make sure that we live that relationship out with others. In other words we must make sure that our horizontal relationship(s) are in proper alignment - "love your neighbor as yourself."
Notice in Genesis chapter 2 (two) as long as Adam and Eve enjoyed a right vertical relationship with the LORD they also enjoyed a horizontal oneness. They were able to be totally transparent with one another. They did not fight or criticize one another. They lived in perfect harmony and oneness.
Then notice what happens immediately in chapter three following their rebellion against the LORD. As soon as their vertical relationship with the LORD is out of alignment they find themselves blaming anything and everything. All of their horizontal relationships fall apart. It's the serpent's fault, it's the tree's fault, it's the Lord's fault, it's Eve's fault and it's Adam's fault.
When our #1 relationship is out of order it should not surprise us that all of our other relationships quickly get out of order. Our relationship with the LORD is foundational to everything else. When our God relationship is out of place everything is out of place. The only way to get our horizontal relationships back into order is to first get our relationship with the LORD back in place. Only then do we have a chance to get our horizontal relationship in the right alignment.
Jesus' uses the Parable of the Samaritan to help us understand. Jesus' makes the hero of the story out to be a man that his Jewish listeners would have had a hard time believing. In their minds a Samaritan was a person who was only worried about himself. Samaritans were seen as selfish and blasphemers. Jesus' listeners would have thought that this man was incapable of loving the LORD or other people much less this man who had been beaten and robbed. The very best Samaritan might have looked after someone in their own tribe but none of them would have ever taken the time or spent the money to take care of someone else.
Jesus used the Samaritan as a metaphor to show us just how much the love for God can transform a person. Jesus uses the Samaritan as a way to wake up his audience to understand that when one truly loves God then they can do amazing things. Loving God, having our Vertical Relationship in the right alignment transforms how we much we can love others. In Jesus' story the Samaritan is a man who believed that "whatever is mine is God's and whatever is God's belongs to my neighbor because my neighbor belongs to Him." (Bruce Larson - THE COMMUNICATOR'S COMMENTARY - LUKE).
Most of the time it is easy for us to say we love others. It's easy because we believe that we actually do love others. We can't think of a reason not to love other people. It's our Christian duty to love other people. We believe it in our heads and in our hearts but when we are tested it is only then that we see that at times we don't always love other people the way we think that we do. We all have a tendency to put up walls and borders. We all have a tendency to be more concerned about the people in our tribe rather than the people who are a part of other tribes.
Let's look at a practical example. How many of us give our time and resources just as freely to someone we don't know as we do to someone we know? When people begin to raise money for someone don't we at times find ourselves asking a series of questions like - Now, who are they? Who are they related to? Are they a part of "my folk"? Are they one of us or are they one of them?
We begin to calculate in our hearts and minds just how generous we should be with them. We begin to calculate if in fact they are worthy of our time and our resources. If they are a relative or a good friend then our generosity level goes up a level. If we have a really great relationship with them then our generosity level goes up even higher. But if we don't know them or we don't think that they have a good enough reason then we begin to rationalize why we are not giving or not giving as much. With those people our generosity level goes down a few levels. We end up either not giving or only giving the minimum.
It's all very natural. It's all very human and it's something that we do without even thinking.
But Jesus reminds us in our passage to - "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." And we do love ourselves. Loving ourselves is just a part of who we are as human beings. Loving ourselves is instinctive and involuntary. When we are in trouble, we never wonder if we are worth helping.
Listen to that again - When you and I (when we) are in trouble - financially, emotionally, physically we never take very much time wondering if we are worth helping. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are worth helping. In fact, we may wonder why people aren't helping faster or being more generous. We tell ourselves that if we had the chance to help someone that was in our condition then we would push aside the time, we would open up the checkbook and we would do all we could to help them.
We usually feel that way until we find ourselves no longer needing help. Then we once again find ourselves thinking - now, who are they? Are they a part of us or one of them? Do they really need it? I bet they have a bunch of money put to the side. After all, I have needs as well.
The lawyer originally asked Jesus the question " AND WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR" hoping that Jesus would allow him to put up his tribal, ethnic or even religious boundaries. He was hoping that Jesus would give him an out when it came to "other people." He was hoping that Jesus would tell him that it is okay to give here but not here. He was hoping that Jesus would tell him that he could give to this person and not to that person.
Instead, Jesus leaves him feeling uneasy and a little unsettled. Jesus leaves him scratching his head and having to rethink his attitude and values. Jesus leaves him with this basic thought - "Just be a neighbor whenever you are needed, and realize that neighbors can come from surprising places". (Darrel L. Brook, LUKE - THE IVP NT COMMENTARY SERIES).
It's easy to read our story and focus on those two unattractive people in our story - the priest and the Levite. But to do so will cause us to miss the truths that Jesus wants us to understand, learn and apply in our lives. We must focus on the Samaritan's love for others. He was able to see a human being in need. He didn't worry about their race, their creed, their culture or their social standing. All he saw was another human being in need. Notice all the things that this man did for his fellow human being:
+ share space with him - he touched him, comforted him and let him know he was not alone
+binds his wounds - he bandages him up
+anoint him with oil - for comfort and healing
+transports him to a place where he could get further help
+ and pay for his bills - some say enough for two weeks others say enough for two months.
The Samaritan is someone I aspire to be but at times I find it difficult. The Samaritan is someone I believe that we all want to be but at times we find it difficult. But just because it is difficult doesn't give us a reason to not reach out.
And it's easy to find oneself over whelmed with all the pain and suffering that is in our world especially in this time of social media. In a matter of seconds we can be overwhelmed with the number of people who are truly going through difficult times. Our world is so vast and there is so much pain, so many people hurting that we often don't know where to even begin. We don't even know how to make a dent in all that pain and suffering.
At times that can cause us to become inactive. We can become so overwhelmed that we don't do anything, not because we don't want to but because we don't know where to start. We can't solve everyone's needs so we turn inwardly and draw back.
From our story, I believe Jesus wants to show us a better way. That better way is to simply pitch in and do something. We can give something where we feel that we can help a little. It's true we can't help everyone but it's also true that we can help someone and we can share something even if it's a little. The little boy couldn't feed all 5,000 but he could share his lunch (Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15).
So, too can we.
It will take us require us to go back to our Primary Relationship Partner (THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY) and allowing Him to guide us and provide us wisdom and knowledge. It will take the LORD showing us how that we can all put aside a little every month just for the purpose of helping others.
The Good Samaritan loaded his donkey with oil, wine, bandages and he carried a little extra money just so that he could help someone along the way. He was a prepared first responder. We can be a prepared first responder as well.
We can put aside a dollar, a five, a ten or a 20 dollar bill just so that we can give it away to a neighbor - a neighbor that we know and a neighbor that we don't know. We can have a rainy day Good Samaritan fund.
So, this morning how do we inherit eternal life?
+We have our vertical relationship in proper order - we love the LORD with all our heart, mind and strength
+We have our horizontal relationship in proper order - we do our best to love others as we love ourselves.
This morning, we will be closing by sharing the Lord's Table. There is no better way to tell the LORD that you love Him with all your heart, soul and might than by receiving the elements that speak of His salvation, His grace and His healing. There is no better way to acknowledge that we need the LORD's grace and mercy today And by taking the Lord's Supper it enables us an opportunity to make sure that our vertical and our horizontal relationships are in proper alignment.
As you come forward to receive the elements you will find a stack of envelopes on the altar. Inside of them is a little information concerning our Mid-South District Hispanic Ministries. This upcoming year has been designated as Hispanic Ministry year - we have all been challenged to do all we can to reach out to our Hispanic friends. In order to do that we need to have some monies ready to use to help in the areas of evangelism and in church planting.
I would encourage you to take one of those envelopes. Pray over them this week. Allow the LORD to lead you to what you are to give towards this great ministry. Then we will be receiving them back next week in our offering and will pass them on to our District who will then use them to help our Hispanic friends all over Tennessee and Mississippi.
Let us come to the Lord's Table this morning:
1Deut. 6:4-9 is sometimes seen as the first of three parts of the Shema. The 2nd part part is found in Deuteronomy 11:13-21 and the 3rd part is found in Numbers 15:37-41.
