The Summit of Salvation
Salvation is not a destination but a journey. Salvation does not bring us to immersion to leave us. Salvation takes us on a journey that will takes up places we have never been. See things we have never seen. Reach heights we have never reached.
I was on the side of the rock climbing wall. Scared to death. Gripping the rocks for dear life. Too afraid to move up or down or side to side. I hung there for what seemed like forever before I finally was able to move off to the side and reach a safety ladder.
The journey of salvation is like that.........exciting, sometimes scary, always unpredictable, but the greatest adventure we could ever ask for.
Scripture for today has some important things to say about our journey -
Our scripture is Luke 10:25-37
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He 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’; and, ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He 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. 35The 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.’
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
The Scene
Jesus is teaching as he is questioned by a teacher of the law. Sort of a lawyer.
To answer the teacher of law, Jesus tells the story. A man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. A very dangerous stretch of road. A Jew traveling discovers just how dangerous it can be as he travels and falls into the hands of robbers. He is stripped, robbed, and left half dead.
And so the scene is set for the lessons we can learn from this story.
The journey begins with Vision.
God’s Word says “Without Vision the people perish.”. Vision plays a huge role in the journey of salvation.
Verse 31 Says the priest traveled down the road and “saw” the man.
Verse32 Says the Levite came to the place and “saw” the man.
Their journey included vision. They saw the helpless man and had to make a decision what to do with what they had seen.
I believe that as each of us becomes a Christian, God will give us a vision for our lives if we ask him to. When he gives a vision we either act on it or we ignore it.
Two kinds of Christians- Christians with vision. They have a sense of the wonderful things that God can accomplish through them. They act on that vision and go out and together hand in hand with God it happens.
I also believe there are Forrest Gump Christians. They are like the feather at the beginning of the movie. They just sort of float around on the breeze. No sense of direction. No purpose. Just go with life and see where they end up. The problem is that they often end up where they don’t want to be.
If we are to climb the mountain and journey in our salvation it must start with vision.
Everyday we see people at work, in the community, in our church, even at home who are spiritually beaten, laying by the road needing our help. The question is what will we do with what we see?
I have tried to set a vision for our church. I use it in the bulletin and newsletter, I try to include it in my preaching whenever possible. My vision for our church is-
A Heart for Jesus, A love for people.
I want you to catch the vision of that so that together we can do great things in this church for Jesus Christ.
The journey requires humility.
Why didn’t the Priest stop and help the man?
Why didn’t the Levite stop and help the man?
I wonder if it had anything to do with pride. After all the priest was a “Priest” he was a very important person. He had to serve in the temple. Could he really be bothered with this? Maybe helping the man would make him unclean. Surely someone else could help the poor man. He had worked hard for his place, and certainly he was too important, too busy, to help the man or put himself in danger by stopping.
The same could be said for the Levite. I am convinced that sometimes Satan tries to use the pride of a Christian to convince them that they don’t need to evangelize. We can get so caught up in the fact that we are already Christians, we have heaven, we have the church, that it is easy to forget we once were lost. We once were blind. We once were the man lying by the side of the road needing someone to help us.
The journey cannot be made without sacrifice.
The two that should have helped the poor man by the road, did not help him. It has to come down to the fact that the price was too high. The cost of time to stop. The cost of danger in stopping to help him, the cost of medical care, clothing, food, lodging.
There will be sacrifice in our journey of salvation. Jesus over and over again reminded people as he called them to follow him, that there would be a cost to be his disciple.
People always had excuses for why they could not follow Jesus. Most did not want to pay the price. The cost was too high.
Jesus warned the people to consider the cost before they started following him so that they would not be like the man who started a building but had to quit half way through because he ran out of money.
Our Christian journey will demand sacrifice from us:
Time (to evangelize, counsel, or physically
help others)
Vulnerability
Finances
Comfort
Think about all the sacrifices that were made so that you could become a Christian. For me there were many:
Parents who got me to church
Sunday school teachers who taught me
Preachers who preached to me
Youth workers who took me on trips
Adults who came to my house and shared the
gospel
The question is will we sacrifice so that others can be saved?
Will we give up our seat at church?
Will we give up our parking space?
Will we work in the nursery so adults can hear
the preaching?
Will we teach children in classes?
Will we give financially to the work of the
church?
Will we go on mission trips?
The journey changes lives.
As I have entered the ministry, God has used me in so many ways. I have seen lives change for him. And in that process he has changed my life. I have had the privilege of seeing young and old come to know Jesus and have their lives changed for him.
Always in the process my life was changed too.
If we will just be faithful to him, and allow God full access to our lives, he will not only use us to change the lives of others, but he will change our lives in the process.
Salvation is not a destination its a journey. That is why Paul says in Titus to “continue working out your salvation in fear and trembling.”
Our Christian life is a journey, it can be a great adventure if we will allow it to be. But we have to be willing to seek the vision. We have to be willing to humble ourselves. We have to be willing to make the sacrifices. We have to be willing to let God change our lives.
