Sermon in Cokato 25.08.2013

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us unite our hearts in opening prayer and thanksgiving. Almighty Creator of all that we see, the earth, the heavens, and all living things, our dear Heavenly Father, we approach you this morning, dear Father, beseeching from thee simply, increase our faith.

Dear Father, grant unto us power and strength to endeavor here in thy blessed kingdom. Dear Father, keep us as little children. Keep us, even as thy Apostle has said, as newborn babies desiring the sincere milk of thy word to grow thereby. Dear Father, help us in the midst of trials and difficulties which so often beset us on this way. Dear Father, grant unto us joy which is only found here in thy kingdom, the joy of salvation.

Dear Father, we ask, remember those on the outside, those loved ones and our neighbors who are endeavoring in the darkness of unbelief. Grant unto them distress over their sin, fallen condition, and grant unto them thy grace of repentance. Lead them here, dear Father, into thy blessed kingdom, into the joy of thy salvation.

And we pray, dear Father, on behalf of this nation, protect and guide. Give wisdom unto its leaders. Dear Father, to do according to thy word. And dear Father, we ask this morning for thy service for us. Grant words of utterance unto thy poor servants. Wherever thy word is uttered this day, feed and nourish us, dear Father. Uplift and comfort us. Grant unto us that assurance that we are yet thine own. And for all this we ask in thy beloved Son's name. In Jesus' name, amen.

We're going to read for our text this morning one of the gospel texts set aside for this day. Found from the 10th chapter of the gospel according to St. Luke, beginning from its 25th verse onward, which portion has been known as the parable of the good Samaritan. These words are in Jesus' name as follows:

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, and 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 hast 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 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.

If we would have looked on our church calendar this morning, we would have saw that the theme or the title for this Sunday simply reminds us of our neighbor. There's a phenomenon in the world today that many people find it very difficult to get along with their loved ones, often much strife there with those that are very close to them. And yet, those people or those neighbors that are far away, they have, if one could say, good relations with them, send offerings, and so on.

This theme for this day is probably one of the most important themes on our church calendar: the theme of our neighbor.

You know, this lawyer, he knew the law of God. He knew the commandments. He knew all the minute details of what the law decrees on to sin-fallen mankind. Naturally, he was a studier of the law. He was a lawyer. He spent his entire life studying what the Bible says concerning the law.

And in the midst of his studies, he began to grow in himself and to think that he's a good person. You know, he reads certain parts of the law and he says, I've done that. You know, and I've done that. And I've fulfilled that part. But without question, he had also heard how Jesus spoke and preached. And his understanding and that which Jesus spoke were not the same.

And the Bible said very clearly here in the beginning, let's read that again:

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. Boy, what a good question he had. But it wasn't a sincere question for himself.

But just imagine if our unbelieving loved ones, our unbelieving neighbors, our unbelieving countrymen, and throughout the world would sincerely pray and ask God this question, the most important question that a sinner could ask: What shall I do to inherit eternal life?

Well, wouldn't you say that that's the most important question that an unbeliever could ask?

Jesus knew the heart and the thought of this lawyer. He knew that he was asking the question, tempting him. And so then, Jesus put the question and the question back to him. And Jesus said, What is written in the law? How readest thou? You're a lawyer. What do you think?

And you know, that lawyer answered the question correctly. 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.

How has it been with you, dear brothers and sisters? How has it been with you? 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 then, to love thy neighbor as thyself. How has it been?

Boy, I have to say that I need to hang my head in shame. I have fallen so short. And yet, this is the instruction of the Holy Scriptures unto us. This is what God wants us to do, to endeavor to do this.

And thank God that we sit here this morning as children of God. We're partakers of heaven here upon the earth, here in God's kingdom. And thank God that through this faith that he's gifted us with, and through the Holy Spirit, it empowers us to endeavor to do this.

Yes, our sin-corrupt flesh then gets in the way. But indeed, we desire to love the Lord thy God with all of our heart, And with all of our soul, And with all our strength, And with all our mind, And our neighbors, that we will love them as much as ourselves.

You know, there was once, I think it's in the 22nd chapter of Matthew, I think it was another lawyer, yeah, 22nd chapter of Matthew, the 35th verse. And one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Oh, how they tried to ensnare the Lord Jesus, that in some way, in answering some of these questions, that he would say a wrong word, that they would jump on him.

Here again, this lawyer now says, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Again, a different lawyer, but the same law, the same commandments, and he knew them, many of them knew them very intimately, very closely.

What did Jesus answer? What is the great commandment? What is the greatest commandment that God has given unto us? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, And with all thy soul, And with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Then he says something so remarkable. He says something that, listen to what he says then. Now, following this, he says that these two commands of God, the entire law is compressed, not just the law, all the things that all the prophets have spoken from the beginning of time until Jesus was born, everything that they have said is compressed into these two commandments. That's all we need to know.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

And then he says, On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Living faith is so simple. It's so incredibly simple. Living faith unto us who are here, it's so easy to behold. It's such a miraculous thing.

The psalm writer joyously sang, I was glad when they said unto me, Come into the house of God.

And where does sin-fallen man find joy? Only here in God's kingdom. The joy of salvation is only found here in God's kingdom, nowhere else.

Isn't it incredible when you think about it? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, And with all thy soul, And with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

You know, once there was this unbelieving reporter in Finland. I forget if she was from the newspaper or the radio or where she was from, but she came year after year to the summer services there in Finland, the Suvi Zauras, where literally tens of thousands of people gather together to hear what God has to say unto them.

And she would interview different youth and different believers year after year after year. Finally, she received the grace of repentance. And someone asked her, Well, how did this come about? And she said, Every time I was with the believers, all I could see and feel was your love toward me.

And year after year she came, and she felt the love of the believers, and she said that is what drew me in. It was the love of Christ, nothing more. The love of Christ that works in every child of God in living faith.

That is how miraculous this living faith is. And that's why this theme for this Sunday, simply thy neighbor, is so important.

Because you, dear brother and sister, you beloved youth, you little children, you are doing the work of God every time you speak of the grace of God and the love of Christ and the unity of this Holy Spirit that dwells here upon the earth in this flock of believers that draws our hearts one to another.

You're serving God, and that's what your duty is to do, speak of this kingdom, speak of this which you and I experience, the joy of salvation.

In our text, this lawyer answered his own question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately, yes, very, very unfortunately, he had no need. He was full of himself.

This text speaks unto us of the righteousness of faith and the righteousness of the law, and it speaks unto us and reminds us of our duty to our neighbor.

But he wasn't done. It says, But he willing to justify himself said unto Jesus, And who was my neighbor? Who was my neighbor?

Then Jesus begins to relay unto him this parable of the good Samaritan. 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.

Now, you know, if you would study geography, you would see very quickly that the Dead Sea, which is full of salt water coming in, no water going out, lies not very far from the ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, but it's 1300 feet below sea level.

And on the shores of the Dead Sea is the town of Jericho, 1300 feet below sea level, just a few miles away from the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, in between there is Jerusalem. Now, the sea is here, and Jerusalem is here. It's two to three thousand feet above sea level.

And to this day, there's a road going down from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and it's three to four thousand feet, and the distance is only 17 miles.

Two thousand years ago, that road was nothing more than a rocky path.

There's a spiritual picture of this. The apostle Paul speaks in the Galatians and reminds us of, I better read it so I don't quote it wrong, but it's okay.

The fourth chapter of Galatians, the 26th verse, speaks of Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all.

In the original text, in the Hebrew, and in the Finnish Bible, it says, But Jerusalem, which is from above, is free, and which is the mother of us all.

It's speaking of God's kingdom, the holy Jerusalem, where the children of God dwell.

Jericho, Jerusalem is here on the city, I mean, on the mountain. Jericho is down here, 1300 feet below sea level.

Jericho is a picture of us, of where sin and corruption dwell. One could say it's a picture of hell.

This man was going from Jerusalem, the kingdom of God. Satan was deceiving him. He was headed down into Jericho.

Robbers came and stripped him of his raiment. He lost living faith. The robe of righteousness with which he had been robed was gone.

He was beaten. He was left half dead. Sin corruption overtook him. He could do nothing for himself. He'd lie there on that way.

But that's not all. Now Jesus is telling that lawyer, but now there was coming down this same rocky road a priest, a fellow man.

And he saw him, and he didn't even, he just went way around him and continued on.

And Jesus spoke about the Levite that came. Now he was a little more curious, and he went up and looked, but then he backed off and walked around him.

We remember in the parable of the prodigal son, he also left home as a child of God with his inheritance, and he spent it all and wasted it all and riotously lived a life of sin.

His older brother reminded, he spent his time with prostitutes and harlots, lived in the filth of the world.

But at some point, at some point, God's grace cleared away some fog of so much that he remembered when he was home there and how good it was to experience the joy of salvation.

It says that he went, he was hungry, and he went to the spiritual merchants.

And I tell you, there's a lot of spiritual merchants in the world today preaching this or this or this is how you construct the stairway to heaven, do this and this.

There is so much confusion in the world among the spiritual merchants, the dead faith and religions of this world.

That priest, he couldn't do anything to that man laying half dead on the way. He couldn't help him, neither could any of those spiritual merchants that that prodigal son went to.

He would have eaten the food that the swine did eat, but they couldn't help him at all.

Then Jesus tells this lawyer, then now a third person comes, and it's a Samaritan.

Now, you know, a Samaritan to us doesn't mean that much today. Two thousand years ago, it meant a lot.

You know, remember when Jesus, it was actually normal in that day when somebody went from Jerusalem to Galilee, Samaria was in the middle there.

They didn't go through Samaria. They went around it to get to Galilee.

Why? Why is that? Well, actually, there was a hatred for Samaritans during the day of Jesus, not just a dislike, there was actually a hatred for them, a disgust.

They were considered a scum.

Why? Well, you would have to study, go back 700 years before Jesus was born, and the Jews that were in the northern territory, northern segment of Israel, there was a time when many were taken into bondage, but there was a few that were left there.

And that ruler brought in alien peoples, people of different nations, and they began to intermarry those Jews and those others, and they became known as the Samaritans.

But yet, among these people, the religious thoughts that those Jewish people had overwhelmed all the other thoughts that came with those aliens.

And they did believe on the first five books of the Bible, the first five books of Moses.

But over time, there became a social dislike, hatred toward them so much so that now during the time of Jesus, like I said, there was a pure hatred among many of the Jewish people toward the Samaritans, even though they were their very distant cousins.

Yeah, you know when Jesus, remember when Jesus went to the Jacob's well, he was traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee, he went through Samaria.

There in Samaria is Jacob's well right in the midst of the Samaritans. He came to that well, and there was a lady drawing water out of that well. She was a Samaritan.

The disciples had gone off already. Jesus was alone. They had gone off to get food for their meal.

And Jesus began to speak to this woman, which was a Samaritan, and he asked her for a drink of water.

And she was amazed at why do you as a Jew speak to me who am a Samaritan?

But Jesus began to speak unto her of this water that you give me one thirst again, even though it's nice cool cold spring water in that well.

But I can offer unto you living water where you will never thirst again.

And somehow then the topic of the husband came up, and maybe Jesus asked her to go get thy husband and come back, and she says I have no husband.

And Jesus said you have spoken well because that man whom you live with now is not thy husband.

She had been married and divorced five times, and she was just amazed that he knew.

And she ran back. She wanted this living water that Jesus offered her. She ran back, and she believed.

She said that you are a prophet, and she said that there is to come a savior.

And Jesus said it is I, and she believed, and she ran back. She left Jesus there at the well, and she ran back, and she started telling the townspeople that I have met him of which the Bible speaks, and he knew all about me.

And you know what the Bible says? It doesn't say all that what she spoke there in the village, but it does say this: and many of them that heard her believe.

She was a child of God just a few moments, and already she was serving the Lord. She was preaching to them of the living savior that is in their midst.

And the townspeople came back to the well. They were, and then the Bible says that many more believed upon him of what he said to them, and they spent a few days there in Samaria.

But this is a little background. Now this is the third person that's coming down from Jerusalem. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus himself, the good Samaritan. That's what the picture is of.

And I'm sure this is exactly where the term good Samaritan came into our language. We all know what a good Samaritan is. It's someone who helps others.

But the good Samaritan here is the Lord Jesus.

Now Jesus was coming down, and he sees this one in need, and a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came where he was.

And when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and he 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.

Unbelieving man poured the oil of the Holy Spirit on his wounds of sin. He received the grace of repentance. He brought him here into God's kingdom, into this wonderful inn that we live in here.

And it says 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.

Now he's speaking to you and I, dear brother and sister. He left with us two pence, grace and truth here in this inn where we dwell, and he reminds us to take good care of him.

The apostle Paul reminded those in his day, do good unto all men, especially of them of the household of God.

And when I come again I will repay thee. It's a picture of our Lord Jesus who binds our wounds, heals us of the disease of sin and unbelief, and he will come again.

I'm going to read that portion where the apostle Paul, when he was reminding those believers there in Thessalonica, and yet it's such a wonderful because he's reminding us too, and he's reminding us of when Jesus will come again.

Listen to how he describes this. It's in the fourth chapter of the first book epistle of Thessalonians, the 16th verse onward, and it says here:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

All those loved ones that are lying there in the bosom of Abraham shall rise first. What does that mean?

But he continues here, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

You know, when you really think about what the Bible says, isn't that comforting?

You know the flesh, when the flesh thinks of the end times, even when flesh thinks of the last day, when flesh thinks of death, of my death, of your death, the flesh trembles.

And yet God, through his grace and mercy, grants unto us power, so much so that the spirit that is within us cries out, Come Lord Jesus, because the reward of heaven is so great.

That's why we come here again and again and again to hear what God has to say unto us.

It doesn't matter who sits here in this place. What's important is that when we come here, we come with that prayer, God open thy word, feed me.

The prophet Amos reminds of a part of that time at the end where he says there will be a famine and a hunger in the land, not a famine and not a famine of food or a hunger for food or thirst of water, but a hunger and a thirst for the hearing of God's word.

How blessed we are that we can come freely again and again and again.

And I would encourage you, dear brothers and sisters, come to the hearing of God's word. It never becomes old. It is never stale. It always gives life. It gives comfort. It's reassuring.

Be it at day circle or Sunday school or Bible class or morning church or evening church or whatever the occasion is, wherever God's word is heard, it is always refreshing. It is always needful.

So now when we look at ourselves, 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.

We certainly don't need to ask, Who's my neighbor? We know our neighbors.

Isn't it a wonderful reminder, dear brother and sister? And why is it so important? It is important because we need one another to get to heaven.

God's kingdom could continue on without me, but I could not take one step without God's kingdom.

We need to remember one another, to reach out for one another, to experience empathy and sympathy for one another and to our neighbor.

And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, grace and truth, and gave him 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 the lawyer said, He that showed mercy on him.

Then said Jesus unto him, Go and do thy likewise.

Dear brothers and sisters, when we, as a psalm writer also has recited, Search me, O Lord, and know my heart, it's an important prayer to God.

When we look at ourselves, we see only unsuccessful, lacking, shortcoming, impatience, sin.

And yet what a joyous message here in God's kingdom unto sinners: you can believe all your sins and doubts forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood, pardon sinners.

And again and again we come to this place to hear the gospel, and this place is found when you are with another child of God wherever you may be.

Be of good comfort, dear brothers and sisters. We have a good instructor. We have a patient and loving heavenly Father who again and again instructs us, reminds us, comforts us, and forgives us.

And may our heavenly Father instill in your heart, and indeed his love does, and the Holy Spirit instills in us to endeavor to serve thy neighbor.

And I also need to hear this gospel that could I believe my many sins and doubts forgiven.

Yes, I want to believe with you.

We are in such a good place here in God's kingdom. We in ourselves are so lacking and so empty, and yet God fills these empty vessels again and again and again and grants new power and strength to endeavor yet for this day believing that all sins are forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his kindness upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.