Sermon in Rockford 22.03.2015

We will pause for a moment still. And you boys and girls have been sitting here very nicely, and I don't know if our dear brother, Mark, still thinks that it would be time to wrap up, but maybe we can still have patience and calmness to sit down and listen. There's a brother in Elk River, our dear brother Brian Johnson, who often reminds us that smaller and older boys and girls, that the time goes the fastest at services when you listen. So we desire to still have patience to sit down and hear the Word of God, and with that humble prayer that as God has opened the Word already today, that He would then continue to feed according to what our need is.

We will read the Word of God from Gospel according to Luke, from chapter 10, beginning from verse 25:
"And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted Him, saying, 'Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'
He said unto him, 'What is written in the law? How readest thou?'
And he answering said, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.'
And He said unto him, 'Thou has answered right. This do, and thou shalt live.'
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'
And Jesus answering said, 'A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
And by chance, there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
And likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
And went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.'
Which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?'
And he said, 'He that showed mercy on him.'
Then said Jesus unto him, 'Go, and do thou likewise.' Amen."

I remember the first winter when living in our house that we had bought here in Minnesota. The snow came, a first snowfall. And being that I come where I come from, I'm used to shoveling the snow and scooping the snow. I had bought a nice shovel that you could use for shoveling the snow. And so I went out there and began shoveling. And I was about halfway done. Well, I enjoyed it. It was nice, brisk air, felt good to push snow, and the yard, the driveway began to get cleaned. About halfway through, my wife then said that, "I have some coffee for you. Come warm up." And of course, I don't usually let that kind of offer pass by.

Before that, I had experienced that the neighbors on that same street were very friendly. They had already come. First time, as they saw me pushing the snow the age-old way with the shovel, a first neighbor came in with his nice four-wheeler and asked, "Can I help you? You don't need to shovel the snow with the shovel. I can help you with this. It doesn't take a long time." I thank him, "Thank you very much for your kindness and offering to help, but I like doing this."

Little while later, I was a little more done with the driveway. Another neighbor came and asked, "Do you need any help?" "No. Thank you, though." I went inside, took off some sweaty clothes and got some dry ones on, sat down for a cup of coffee, and my wife told me that, "Come take a look." I went to take a look, and there was a third neighbor already plowing our driveway with his nice Yamaha. These were unbelieving neighbors, but they were my neighbors. They were not only neighbors because they happened to live on that street.

It might snow today, so maybe another story about the snowfall. I got stuck in the driveway with a big minivan that I know a lot of believers drive. Either Chevy or Ford, they still have a tendency to get stuck very easily. I called my friend in faith and said that, "I'm stuck in my own driveway." He said, "Oh, don't worry. I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." He just came about half an hour late, and I didn't, of course, want to say anything about that because he was kind enough to come. He began to speak himself. He said, "Sorry, I'm a little late. Well, as I was leaving my street, I had to pull one car out of their driveway, and as I entered your street, there was another car who needed my help." That believing brother, he had been a neighbor to all kinds of people around the city, around the town where we live at.

This portion that we read speaks of this question, that, who is my neighbor? "And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying, 'Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'" Very good question. Hopefully, many, many people will ask this question. Hopefully, many people, as they are asking a question, can ask it from a believer who has living faith. Jesus answered and said unto him, "What is written in the law? How readest thou?"

Jesus' way was that kind of a kind and polite way, and don't we see even here a commending to a very special skill that this scribe had. Dear boys and girls, you are... Some of you are learning the ABCs, A, B, C, and D. They are hard at first, really hard, and there are so many of them, but hard work and growing up, reading and reading more, eventually, you learn them. Almost everyone in this country learns them. Not the case in Jesus' time. Very few people were able to read and write, and if they were able to, they were called scribes because they had this very specific skill. Jesus asked, "How do you read the Book of Law?" That, how shall I inherit eternal life?

And this man, the scribe, very religious man, very well-read into Old Testament scriptures, very scripturally answers. "And he answering said, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.'" That was the way how the law would provide one a chance to inherit eternal life. And Jesus doesn't disagree. Jesus said, "Thou has answered right. This do, and thou shalt live."

If any of you can meet the demand of law, that would be a way, according to what Jesus says. It just turns out that it is impossible for man. We heard... I think our dear brother spoke about it, maybe many of you spoke about it, that our sin-corrupt flesh is already wholly corrupted. But this man thought that he would. He, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" For him, it seemed to be that he already knew who God was and how he could love the Lord thy God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength, and with all his might. And he did not even realize that he was speaking to the Son of God Himself.

But this question of a lawyer, he willing to justify, he wanted to make it clear that, you know, Jesus would know that there's a distinction in who you need to be nice to, and there's a distinction in the law. He, willing to justify himself, and according to this text, obviously, willing to show to Jesus that he had always done right. He asked the question, "Who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor?"

The man had learned from Leviticus, if he can find it, where the law speaks of a neighbor. Leviticus 19. And there's some good instructions there. "Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind." Not speak bad or curse someone who can't even hear you. Not put a stumbling block on a person who cannot see. Very good instructions. "But thou fear thy God. I am the Lord. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor." And then, "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people. Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor. I am the Lord. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord."

Many believed that the neighbor would be only one from the nation of Israel, from the tribe, their own tribe, from their own fellowship, that they would not need to be kind to others. There was another group there that lived close by the Jews, Samaritans. At this time, when this man speaks to Jesus, they were despised by the Jews because they were the half-breed. They had intermarried and mixed up with Assyrians some six hundred years before, and they had taken the Book of Moses and tweaked some things there, for example, so that the place of worship would not be Jerusalem, but it would be Mount Gerizim. We remember when Jesus once was visiting with the lady at the well. At the well of Sychar, the lady spoke that, "You teach that the worship is at Jerusalem, but our people teach that the worship had to happen at Mount Gerizim."

There was a big rift between the Jews and Samaritans. They had certain reasons for that, but there was... What had taken the Jews over was this kind of pride and feeling of betterness in such a way that they despised the Samaritans so much so that they would actually go, and if they would see a Samaritan, they would go on the other side of road and pass by, so that they would not get defiled. Samaritan woman at the well was astonished when Jesus came and talked to her, "How do you speak to me? Because I'm a Samaritan, and I'm a woman."

This man who believed that he had done all the demands of law because he had loved the God, the Father, and he had also loved his neighbor, a tribe member, those of his kin, those who believed the way he believed, that with that, he had justified his way into eternal life... It turns out when he's asking the question here, he's tempting Jesus. It's a good question, but you can ask it with right kind of mind and a wrong kind of mind. This man wanted to teach Jesus. Turns out, the chairs are turned. Jesus begins to teach to the lawyer's question that, "Who is my neighbor?"

And Jesus answering, said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead." Terrible, horrible thing for this poor man. He was on his way from Jerusalem. There's a reason why we sing, Let Us Go Up to Jerusalem. There's a reason why it's said, the city on a hill cannot be hidden. Its lights, when they burn, they can be seen far away when it's up high. Going down the road to Jericho would take a person a little over fifteen miles, maybe a little over three thousand feet down slope. And it was a narrow road, difficult to walk. There were perfect places there, very good places there for the robbers to come and attack, to steal, beat someone up. That had happened to this man. He was left there by the wayside, half dead.

He was on his way down from Jerusalem, the holy city, where there was the holy temple of God. Dear brothers and sisters, let us not look down on the holy temple of God when we speak about it. It was important for the Old Testament believers. It was the dwelling place of God. That's where God would meet His people. But for that temple worship service, God Himself had ordained that there would be responsibilities. The most honored was that of the priest who would perform worship service. There was daily ritual of slaughtering of animals, and many different kind of rituals that God had ordained to be as a poor picture of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that perfect sacrifice.

The priest, very highly regarded. Priest had to be pure for the service. He could not be defiled. One of the ways he could be defiled is by touching a corpse. The priest and Levites would go from wherever they lived for a little while, maybe a week, couple weeks, to take their turns. Just like you brothers and sisters, we take our turns in doing our duties. We're in the kitchen here at services, and song leading, and ushering, and being a service director, and so on. So priests and Levites took their turns in going to do those duties in the temple, and these were the teachers of the people of God. Obviously, they understood from the law of God the same way as this lawyer who asked the question from Jesus, because it happened so.

A priest comes on the narrow way from Jerusalem to Jericho. Sees a man on the wayside, half dead, bleeding, naked. He sees right away, somebody has stolen all of his possessions, beaten him up. This man is in danger of death. Not an easy situation to take lightly. What does the priest do? What would you do, my brother and sister? What would you do? Priest takes a look at the body, goes on the other side, keeps on going. He was coming down the road. He wasn't even going to do the worship service. There's no reason for him to not touch a potential corpse, because his duty was not for a while anyway. He was going back home to his family. Yes, very reasonable that there would be family waiting.

The Levite comes, sees the same corpse. What does he do? Steps on the other side, looks at the corpse, keeps on going. A very cold approach, a very cold approach. There, the man who was robbed, who was beaten, was about to die, is laying on the side of the road.

Jesus keeps on telling his story. "But a certain Samaritan..." Samaritans, those people who were described as the most despised, the half-breed, those who had twisted the truth of God. "As he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said unto him, 'Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.'"

And then Jesus, after telling this story, asks, "Which now of these three thinkest thou was a neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves?" After hearing this, the scribe could not but say that he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, "Go and do thou likewise."

The man realized that Jesus had taught him something that he had not learned before. The word neighbor, in Finnish, we say the closest one, near one. Jesus taught to the man that we are to be neighbor, not only to our own people, to our own tribe, as the man thought he had done all the law of God. Jesus showed to that man that every time when he had seen an unbeliever in need, a person who was not in his tribe, in need and some dire need of something, and he had gone by, he had been just like the priest and the Levite.

Jesus teaches us, he says, "You have been taught, love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Jesus says, "Love your neighbor and love your enemy. Love those who despitefully speak against you and persecute you." Such a deep love God has for all mankind, that He sent His only begotten Son, that no one would need to perish. That He sent His own to speak the sermon of repentance to your people. Turn away from your ways of sin and believe the gospel, gospel of God's kingdom. He wanted to pull them into His kingdom, and that's one reason why God's kingdom is here, so that we are ready to live our lives the way we do, and when people see that there is some hope there, that we could extend our invitation to them, and when they find themselves in need, that we would be ready to preach the gospel.

Now, loving a neighbor cannot become work either. My childhood friend once said that, tongue-in-cheek, he said, but it has some very good teaching to us. He said, "I'm the most humble person in the world." Think about it. We have talked about humility. At Mary's Day time, it's very good to talk about it because Mary is the picture of that. Humility can also become work, just like love can become work. Anything that we want to offer for God can become work. It is good that people do good things and loving things to others, take care of each other. But yet, this man thought that he had done it all right, and Jesus showed him that he had loved only that very small portion of the people who were part of his life, and so that God wants us to love much more.

This story of Jesus teaches us that even though we see the evil deeds of the priest and the Levite, and we realize in that, that, you know what? That's kind of how I have been in many times. That I have gone past, I have left somebody in need, where I could have very well gone the extra mile and helped the person in need. But it also teaches this, that that's how we people often are. For the lawyer who wanted to be justified, Jesus shows that in so many ways, he had done wrong. In so many ways, he had done wrong.

Dear brothers and sisters, this teaches us that there are so many requirements of the law. God would want us to live in so much better way than we do, and we have. That if we desire to enter into that way of requirements, to build up some kind of a credibility before God, well, it just doesn't work. We all need to, in the end, find ourselves in the need of the care of that Good Samaritan.

There is another way to look at this story, that this man who was half robbed, left and went away from the holy city toward a city of sin. On that way, he got robbed. Dear brothers and sisters, we all fall into sin, and then when sins are not forgiven and the life in willingly sinning continues on, at some point, faith goes. Unless we get cared for, for all of our wounds. So it is that this lawyer who wanted to, in his self-righteous way, faith, showed to Jesus that he had done everything that the law requires. He realized that there's just no way. The only way into the eternal life is that one will realize that I have sinned in so many ways against my God. I have not always loved the Lord my God with all of my heart. I have not always loved with all of my soul, with all of my strength, and with all of my mind, and I have not loved my neighbor as myself. I don't know if there's anyone here, you, who think that you would have done this. I don't think so.

That's why Jesus, the Good Samaritan, comes into the help of the sinner. He finds us up, brings us back into the inn He can find. There's a song that speaks of this:
"Jesus Christ, the crucified,
In my sinful heart abide.
You were crucified for me
On the cross of Calvary.
Keep me in a beggar's place,
Always needing love and grace.
I am cold when lepers cry,
Like the Levite rushing by.
I go by the other side,
Jesus, find me in my pride.
Take me down to poverty,
Heal my soul of leprosy."
And then,
"Jesus, keep me in your inn.
Daily salve my wounds of sin.
In this kingdom's dear embrace,
Teach me how I need your grace.
Jesus, take me soon away
To abide in joy for aye."

Jesus, the perfect teacher, teaches us that if we have any vain imaginations that we can, of our own power, inherit eternal life, it is in vain. And He also teaches us that if we have any imaginations that now I, who have gained such a great grace to be part of this wonderful fellowship of the Kingdom of God, that I now would not be encouraged to love my neighbor as myself, that is also in vain.

Jesus teaches us we all need God's grace, and when we have received that grace, may it be so that that grace of God can abound in our heart, love for those who are in need. Love in truth, that's what we have heard this weekend. That is the way how we love. We do not need to condone sinful lifestyles, but we can yet love people and care for them in many of their needs. Just like those neighbors of mine came and helped in plowing the driveway or the brother in faith who helped people who were stuck.

What is the greatest way a child of God can help someone? What is the great... I would like to ask you, boys and girls, what is the greatest way? I think you can help each other in many ways. Somebody falls on the playground, no matter if he's a believer or unbeliever, go ahead, help them. Go ahead. If somebody loses their gloves, go ahead, help them find them. These are the ways that we are with people. There are many who are at school and at work, and I guess my heart is close to my work. Many are the ways that we are with unbelieving people, and we respectfully are with them, and we do work with them. We do not need to go there thinking that we cannot discuss with them, talk with them.

But what is the greatest way to love a person who is not believing? It is that if they can find themselves sinners, that we are there to operate. They have need for it. But also they, for all of their sins, they can believe the gospel, that their sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. In this way, Jesus has sent us in the world. That would be one of the reasons why He said to His Father that, "I pray that you will not take them out of the world, but you would preserve them from the evil."

Brothers and sisters, as we're almost closing these services, you can go when you go. If God gives us another day, you can go back to your places of school and employment and may that dim light of the lamp of God's word be burning there in the midst of this dark world. Be nice to the people that you are with, because according to Jesus, they also are our neighbors. They also are our neighbors.

I have been here, and it has been nice to visit with you at coffee tables, and it's time to go for coffee once more, and then come yet for the closing service. But I ask that you remember us there in Elk River, in this mutual faith, that we could all remain believing. And thank you for your hospitality here. May God continue to bless this congregation.

Before I leave, I would like to yet assure all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, that you can uplift your heart and believe that all of your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and blood, and you can be of good cheer. This way, when we believe, we do not need to trust in the goodness of our own endeavor, but we can trust in that grace of God, which He gave to us, in that He sent His only Son to die on the cross, to pay for all mankind's sin debt, and then resurrect Him, so that those who believe, those who have walked in the fellowship of God's kingdom, have a hope of one day being in the resurrection morning. Dear brothers and sisters, when we desire to put sin away, desire to walk with the people of God, loving God, loving our neighbor, but realizing we are anything but perfect people, when we desire to remain in that little flock that travels to heaven's home, God will help us. And God is powerful enough to bring us to heaven's home. In Jesus' name, amen.