Luke 10 (Part 3)

Chapter 10, Luke, beginning at verse 25, we are going to read to the end of the chapter. Follow along as I read. It says:

“29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’

“38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ 41 But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha. Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” Let's pray. Thank You, Father, for giving us this time together to be in Your presence, to be in the Word, to worship together, to open our hearts, Lord, to all that You have to say to us through the Scriptures. And we pray for Your Holy Spirit to speak to each and every heart. Speak clearly, Lord. Speak words of grace and love and assurance. We give You this time, Father, and we invite You to open our eyes and to open our ears, spiritually speaking, to hear Your voice. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen. You'll notice that verse 25, as we open up this section, this last section of Luke, chapter 10, speaks of a lawyer who approached Jesus with a question. Now, when you see that word lawyer, don't think of a lawyer like we know them. This is not the kind of person who would argue cases in a court of law and defend or prosecute someone. A lawyer from a Jewish perspective was someone who was an expert in the Law of Moses, in the Mosaic law, and their basic function was not to work in a court of law. Their basic function was to interpret the Law and to teach the people what it takes to obey God. And that is what these individuals basically did. So this individual, this person comes up to Jesus, and he says to Him, or he asks Him rather, in verse 25 (if you look with me there again in your Bible) he said, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Now, it is important to note here that Luke goes –he tells us– that this man is testing Jesus. Why is that important? Why is it important for Luke to tell us that this man was testing Jesus? Well, it is because people ask questions for a lot of different reasons. Not everybody who asks you a question asks because they need to know the answer. Or, that they don't know the answer. That's probably a better way to put it. Some people ask questions because they want to see what your answer is. And if you match up with their answer. I get this all the time. Jesus got it. I get it. Anybody who teaches the Word, or if you even tell somebody you are a Christian, they might do the very same thing to you. They ask you a question to see if you line up with what they believe. I always –well, I can usually– tell that is the case when people ask me questions like, do you believe a Christian can lose their salvation? Or, pastor Paul, do you believe that the church is going to go through the tribulation period? Or something like that. Usually, they have their mind made up on those questions. And they are not asking me to learn. They are asking me so they'll know whether to stick around, frankly. They're testing. This guy is testing Jesus. What is He going to say here? Is He going to say what's right? You can often tell a lot about a person by the question that they ask. If you really listen or really look at the question that they're putting to you or to someone else, you can tell a lot. You can tell a lot about this person because he asks a very pointed question that tells you about what he believes. What is interesting about this question asked by this expert in the Law is, it is almost identical to another question that is asked of Jesus that, in fact, Luke is going to tell us about in the coming chapters. So that you might see these side by side, I want to put them up on the screen here for you, so that you can compare them. The Questions: Luke 10:25 (ESV) “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 18:18 (ESV) “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Here's the one we just read on the top: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life.” Now, in about 8 chapters or so, another man is going to come up to Jesus and say, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Check them out. Almost identical, aren't they? You can tell by the fact that this is a repeated question that this was important to the Jews. They wanted to know, what is it going to take for me to have eternal life? But it's interesting, there is more in common here than just these questions. What we also have in common are the answers that Jesus gave to these questions. I want to also put these up on the screen, repeating here, first of all, the answer we just read.

Answer #1 Luke 10:26-28 (ESV)

Jesus said to this expert in the law, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” By the way, that question right there, did you notice Jesus answered his question with a question? That's a way of saying to this man, I know you are not looking for the answer because you don't know it. You are looking to see what I think. So I'm going to put it back on you. How do you see it? And that's, frankly, a very good question, when you know that somebody is asking you because they just want to see where you sit. So Jesus responds, “How do you read it?” He says (He begins to quote these various commandments): “You shall 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.” And Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” Then, look at the second answer that Jesus gave to the man that we will see in the coming chapters. Answer #2 Luke 18:20 (ESV)

To that man, he said, “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother.” Now, did you notice that in both cases, where Jesus answered these men's question, –and remember, the question is, How do I get to heaven? How do I have eternal life?-- did you notice Jesus answered with the Law, both times? Now, that could confuse a few people.

It's like, Jesus answered with the Law? Why did He do that? Wait a minute. I thought I read somewhere in the Bible that we are saved not by keeping laws, but by trusting in Christ and what He did on the cross, His finished work for us on the cross. So why in the world is Jesus telling both of these men, in order to have eternal life, you have to obey the Law? The answer is, because He is answering their question. He is answering their question, because if you look very carefully at their questions, you see something very interesting. Here they are: The Questions: Luke 10:25 (ESV) “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 18:18 (ESV) “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” and, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Did you catch that? These guys were asking, What is required of me in order to have eternal life? Basically Jesus is telling them what they need to do to have eternal life: Here's what you do. You have to do, you have to obey the Law. All right, let's close in prayer. No, no, no, there's way more to this, isn't there, because we have a problem, you guys. There's just this little problem. Paul wrote about it when he wrote his letter to the Romans. Let me put that up there also for you: Romans 3:23 (ESV)

…all have sinned and fall short (notice what we fall short of) the glory of God, Do you know that the glory of God is what is reflected in the Law? The Law is glorious, and it reveals the glorious requirements that God has placed upon man, because it is His righteous requirements. But there is a problem with these glorious requirements. We have all sinned and fall short. All –I, by the way– I have to go back to that verse once in a while and make sure all still says all, and it does. We have all fallen short, right? Every single one of us, we fall short. Oh man, well, I guess we're hopeless then, right? Let's close in prayer. No, we're not done yet. Here's the deal. Jesus is not contradicting what Paul said. Jesus said, You want to know what you need to do to earn your way to heaven? You have to keep the Law. What he didn't say was what Paul was going to come out later and say: You can't do it though. There's no possible way, with your human effort, you're going to be able to impress God and keep the Law perfectly because, see, that's the point. It's not just keeping the Law, you guys, it's keeping it perfectly. You can't have just one mess up. If there's one mess up, –and that verse told us right there, we've all messed up. We have all fallen short, right?-- then, you're out. So the requirement for eternal life is total obedience to the Law. Paul is basically giving the bad news in his letter saying, it is unattainable through human effort. That is why Paul goes on to say in Romans, Chapter 3: Romans 3:20 (NIV)

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law… And there are wonderful laws. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, love your neighbor as yourself. We could go on, we could talk about God's laws all day long. Nobody is going to be declared righteous in His sight by keeping the Law. Nobody is going to be declared righteous in His sight by keeping the Law. For you and me, it's impossible. But you see, the Jews had actually been drawn into a belief that they could keep the Law. They believed they could. And the reason they believed that is because they had been dumbing down the Law for a long time. They had essentially lowered the standards of what God's Law had to say. That is why Jesus kept having to raise the standards around them when He taught about the Law. Remember when we were going through Matthew? It was a long time ago for some of you. But you go through the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is talking to the people of Israel.

He says (Matthew 5): “You've heard that it was said…,” right? And then He would quote something, and then He would say, “But I say to you…” and what He did is, He raised the standard, He raised the bar. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’” (Matthew 5:27). I got news for you, you look at a woman lustfully, and you have committed adultery, right? “You have heard that it was said…” (Matthew 5:21) Do not kill, do not murder. Well, listen, I have news for you. If you just hate somebody in your heart, you have very possibly committed murder in your heart. You see, Jesus took the Law and He–- because the Jews had been compromising, they had been bringing down the standards. That is the whole reason Jesus now begins to share this story, this parable of the Good Samaritan, to show that very thing. He wants to illustrate here what is meant by love your neighbor as yourself. Because you see, the Jews had redefined what neighbor meant. Their neighbor was their fellow Jew. So the Jews felt justified in hating Gentiles and Samaritans, because they weren't Jews. See, I can hate all these other people all I want because they are not my neighbor, right? They wouldn't have liked Mr. Rogers’ song, Won't You Be My Neighbor, because they knew who their neighbor was. It was their fellow Jews. And so you see, I could –boy, talk about a free pass! --I get to hate these other people. Sweet! And I'm completely justified in doing so, at least in my mind. Jesus begins to speak to this issue, and He starts telling this story. After the man asks Him, who is my neighbor? Define for me my neighbor. Tells the story of this Jew, this Jewish man, who is on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho on foot. And as he walks along, he is pounced upon by thieves who beat him to a pulp, leaving him for dead, take everything he owns, leaving him on the side of the road just to wallow in his blood. Along comes a priest, and he sees this man lying beside the road, and he crosses to the other side of the road and passes on. And then, He says, a Levite shows up on the scene. A Levite would be a descendant of the tribe of Levi. These people were also tasked with helping the priests. So they were considered part of the religious leaders of Israel, if you will. And this Levite also sees this man lying beside the road and passes on. Finally, Jesus tells the story that a Samaritan came along, saw the man lying there on the road, had compassion upon the man, grabbed him, picked him up, bandaged his wounds, cleaning them first. Puts him on his own donkey and takes him to a nearby inn where he checks him in, takes care of him the rest of that day and all that night, and then the next morning gives money to the innkeeper, saying, If there are any more expenses incurred (in the) for this man, just let me know. Next time I pass through I'll pay you what is owed. That's pretty incredible stuff. And then Jesus asks a very penetrating question in verse 36. Look with me in your Bible. He says, “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He has this expert in the law right where He wants him, because He just told this story about these Jews who wouldn't lift a finger to help their fellow Jew, who should have been their neighbor. A Samaritan who was a despised individual, someone the Jews hated, came along and actually rendered all this service to this individual. He says, who do you think was a neighbor to this man? There is no possible way this expert in the Law could say anything else. He said, I guess it is “the one who showed him mercy.” And He said, that's right. Now, “go and do likewise.” And what Jesus is doing here: He's responding to this question that the man originally asked, which was, tell me who is my brother? Who is my neighbor? He is responding by saying, Listen, God's definition of who your brother is, has nothing to do with your racial bias. In fact, it has nothing to do with any kind of racially motivated sort of a deal at all. Your brother is whomever you have a heart of compassion toward, and what God is looking for is your heart of compassion. What did Jesus do? He redefined once again… I shouldn't say redefined. He clarified for the Jews. This is what God meant when He said, love God, love your neighbor. You guys came up with all these fanciful explanations for who a neighbor is so that you could keep from loving the people you hated. And look what you did. But here was God's intent. Love your neighbor. It's just anybody. And so He says, Go and do likewise. He's communicating to this man that you are not keeping the heart of the Law as you suppose. Jesus did the very same thing. We're going to see it when we get to Chapter 18. That young, (that's the) rich young ruler who comes to Him and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus is going to show that man too, that he didn't keep the Law. That is such an important thing to remember because we as Christians –we as Christians– can even fall into this same trap of thinking that somehow I have to be good enough. I have to impress God by doing this or doing that. And frankly, what Jesus said to this man, when He told this story and showed this man that he was unable to keep the Law as God intended it to be kept, this man should have dropped to his knees at that point and said, God, forgive me. I had it all wrong. We have completely redefined what it means to look at somebody and call them a neighbor. And we did it completely without Your Word; we just did it ourselves. That was the way the Jews handled the law, all the time. They were constantly looking for loopholes to bring it down to a manageable level, to the point where when Jesus came along, they believed they could keep the Law and be saved. They believed it with all their hearts, and they missed the glory. They missed the glory of God in the Law, that when we look at the Law, we say, There's no possible way I can do this. I see it. It's beautiful. Really, the law is beautiful when you look at it. And were we able to keep it, this world would be a utopia. But I can't, and you can't either. Because we have sinful natures. That's what the Law was intended to do. It was intended to get us to look at it and go, Whoa, can't do that. What's left? What's left to me then? Well, to fall on my knees before God and beg for mercy. That's all that's left. Lord, I ask you to forgive me. And the Lord comes along and says, I've made a way for that to happen. I sent My Son who did come and perfectly keep the law. He did it for you. And then having qualified to be your Savior, He died on the cross, and He paid your penalty. Now you look to Him and what He did, and you will be saved. Your sins will be wiped out. That is how you and I are saved. That's how our sins are forgiven. Not by being good. I can't be good enough. I can't earn my way into God's presence, into heaven. I can only trust that what Jesus did on the cross for me was sufficient to wipe out the penalty of my sin. And that is the only thing that I can do. It's interesting in this story of the Good Samaritan. It's not that hard to figure out the types and shadows that are being conveyed here. Did you notice of all the people that Jesus could have chosen in telling this story who came across this man, and saw him as if he were dead and just passed on without doing a thing – did you notice He picked a priest and a Levite? And that's interesting, isn't it? Because these were kind of the religious elite of Israel. And so He picks these individuals who really represent the Law. That's what these men stand for, if you will. They are a picture for you and me of the Law, and the fact that the Law cannot change human hearts, right? How many times have I said this to you? Any more than your bathroom scale can change your weight. It can't change it. It can only tell you what it is. And then you look at it, and you're horrified for a few seconds, right? And then you might be motivated to do something about it, but if you sit there and look at your bathroom scale and say, make me lighter, it has no ability to accomplish that task. It can only tell you how far you need to go to get where you need to be. That's what the Law does for you and me. It can't change our lives. It can only tell us how much we have fallen short. Paul tells it right there. All have sinned and fall short. That's what the Law tells us. That is how we know that we have fallen short. The Law told me. The Law said, Don't do this. Well, guess what? I did it. I've just been made aware of the fact that I fall short. That is the function of the Law. Jesus tells this story of these individuals who passed by as a picture of the impotence, frankly, of the Law to change our lives. Now, I'm not talking down the Law, you guys. It's incredible. Whenever I talk about the Law, I get nasty-grams, frankly, from people. People really get upset with me, and they assume I'm saying things. I had a guy write me, and he said, you're telling people that the Law is invalid. No, I did not say that. The Law is the glory of God. It just can't save you. It was never meant to save you. It was only ever meant to show you that you need to be saved. People who think that the Law can save you are following the same error that the Jews followed when Jesus came upon the scene. Now, the other picture that is given to us in this story is that of the Good Samaritan. Pretty interesting. That is a picture of Jesus. And how interesting that He would use a Samaritan as the hero of His story. But this is a picture of Him. This is the one: He's referring to Himself. He's the one who comes to rescue us. He is the one who pays the price for our healing. He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother, stays with us, and will not leave us nor forsake us. So this is a beautiful story, and we need to see it for what it is. The final event that this chapter relates to us is one that takes place in the small village of Bethany. It doesn't mention Bethany here, but we know that is where Martha and Mary lived. And we are told in verse 38 that as they were “on their way, Jesus entered (that) a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.”

--- Then in verse 39, we are told that, “She had a sister called Mary.” And Mary was different from Martha in that Mary “sat at the Lord's feet.” just listening to everything He was saying while Martha was busy doing, running around, and got to get this thing, and clean up, and stuff like that. And Mary is hanging out at the feet of Jesus. Finally, Martha gets so upset at her sister sitting there that she comes to the Lord, and she says, –I love this– don't you care? Don't you care that I'm doing all this work, and I'm busy? And I'm doing this all for You. So don't you care that here's Mary, just sitting there on her duff, not lifting a finger to help with any of this work around here. Don't you care? I love the Lord's answer in verse 41. He says, “Martha, Martha,” and then this very insightful statement, “You are anxious and troubled about many things.” I have a feeling there's a lot of people listening here this morning who are probably far too often anxious and troubled about many things. Then Jesus goes on to speak to us about where we ought to be by way of priority. And He says, “One thing is necessary.” Did you catch that? “One thing is necessary.” In other words, one thing is the most needful thing. Mary found it. I'm not taking it away from her. Because you need to understand, Martha, that your greatest need is not to give. It is to receive. I'm not saying that you don't need to give. We do need to give. Christians, listen to me. We need to give out. There are times that you just need to do things. You'll notice, Martha doesn't get rebuked here by the Lord for being busy. He's not telling her, stop that! And just sit down! Things need to get done. We all know that. We get it. What Jesus is saying here is, in the kingdom of God, there are priorities that we have to recognize. What that means is, in the kingdom of God, there are things that are more important than other things. And what is more important than giving is receiving. Why? Because if you haven't first received, you are going to give for the wrong reasons. We have seen this in people all the time. If they don't fill up first, then what they are giving is not a natural overflow of their heart and what they have received from the Lord. They are giving out of obligation. They're giving out of a need to be recognized. I have talked to people who want to give to the Lord or do some kind of service. Sometimes people even say, pastor Paul, I need to find something to do around --- here. And I always ask him the same question. Why? Why do you need to do something? And then we start talking about the motivation behind it. I'm not saying that what they want is bad, but I want to talk about the motivation. Why do you want to do something? And they are like, Well, you know, I don't know. And when, as we talk about it, we find out eventually there is an emptiness going on in their hearts, in their lives. And they are feeling the need to feel closer to God. And so they think, I'm just going to… I'm going to.. I know! I'm just going to give to the Lord, and then I'm going to feel closer to God. That answer is wrong. You want to feel closer to the Lord –sit at His feet. Then there is going to be a natural overflow of your heart, that desires to give because you love Him, and because you just want to serve someone who is such a wonderful blessing, Who has nourished your heart and filled you with good things. Then you are going to be giving for the right reasons. It's just like giving financially. God's Word says, if you can't give with the right attitude, you're best off not to give. Because it is really not going anywhere anyway in terms of being credited to your account, you know what I mean? “God loves a cheerful giver.”

That is what He told us in His Word. The same thing is about serving. God loves a cheerful server, too. But that cheerfulness comes as we do the Mary thing. We do just what we are doing here this morning. We come together, and we sit at His feet, and we pray. We learn, we grow, we hang out together, we talk, we pray, we encourage one another. That's how we are sitting at the feet of Jesus today. And I need this, by the way, what we are doing right now today, I need this. Just to let you know. I've been telling people for a lot of years, I think the reason God called me to be a pastor is because He knew if He didn't, I probably wouldn't go to church. I'm serious. I'm an introvert. I really am. And I find it hard to go meet new people. I find –because Sue and I, in our 41 years of marriage –there have been times that I wasn't pastoring a church, believe it or not. And, of course, the first five years of our marriage, we didn't go to church. Ever. Because we weren't even walking with the Lord. And I didn't want to go to church because I felt, well, who wants to go to church when you're not walking with the Lord? You know what I mean? You go there, and you're just going to feel like a scumbag. Well then, even after you start walking with the Lord, going to a new church is hard, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah. Because you're –now some of you guys are extroverts, God bless you. I don't know what planet you came from, but I can't relate. I really can't. Some of you guys love to just be around people. And talk. And I know who you are, because you are the last one out the door. We are usually turning off the lights, and you are still in the room. And we're like: attention Kmart shoppers. The store will be closing in 15 minutes. But you guys are loving that interaction. There are some of us who struggle because human interaction actually depletes us, instead of –but we have to remember that spiritually we need this. Introvert, extrovert, it doesn't matter. I still need what we are doing here today. I need to go through the Word. I need to be with you. I need you to pray for me. I need to pray for you. I need this interaction. That is why the Bible says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25) We are not to forsake what we are doing here because we are sitting at the feet of Jesus, and it is vital. It is truly vital. And again, I want to say this: when we sit at the feet of Jesus and fill up, then we overflow in service for the right reasons. Let me put this passage on the screen. We will end with this from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 1. I love this. Paul writes, and he says:

We continually remember before our God and Father (look at this) your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Did you notice those three things? And what they are prompted by? Because your work isn't always produced by faith, is it? Sometimes it is produced by obligation. Or by guilt. That's another thing that causes people to– I need to serve the Lord because I had a really bad week, and I need to make up for it. And maybe He'll let me balance out my bad week. I yelled at three people. So now I need to do good things for at least five. Yeah, that's really dumb. See, he's talking about “work produced by faith, (and, look at this)... labor prompted by love.” Wow. “Your labor prompted by love.” That means your love of the Lord. Your love of the Lord. Why are you doing this? I just love Jesus, that's why I do it. I love to just– I love Jesus, so I love doing this. I love serving the Lord in this way.

And he says, “Your endurance inspired by hope.” Sometimes we do have to endure through very difficult things. But he doesn't say, we pray for you because of your endurance inspired by your clenched teeth and your determination to get through this thing. That's not what it's all about. It's “endurance inspired by hope.” So you see, what's behind these things is critical. What is behind your Martha needs to be your Mary, okay? It's okay to be Martha, because things have to be done. But make sure when you are doing your Martha thing, that you have already done your Mary thing. You have sat at the feet of Jesus. You have filled up your tank. You have gotten filled up to the point where you are ready now to serve. Here at Calvary Chapel, we basically have a kind of waiting period when people first start attending. They'll come to us and say, I really want to get involved, and we make them wait, because we know that people just need to fill up for a season just to sit at the feet of the Savior. Just hang out, fill up your heart. Don't get me wrong. There's a time to get off your duff, okay? But there is also a needed time to sit and just fill up on Jesus, amen?