Two Year Gospel Study Week 33

Luke 10:25-37.

Jesus often answered a question with a question. But when asked "Who is my neighbor?," He answered by telling a story - a story that asks the same question of us.

Today’s study is The Good Samaritan, a 2000 year old parable from Jesus that still speak into our culture today.

This story starts with an expert of Jewish law asking Jesus a question. Jesus answered the question with a question. A tactic Jesus used frequently. Why? Because He knows questions are how one gets to a person’s heart. Questions force one to think things through.

Jesus answers the first few questions from the expert with questions but then He answers the “who is my neighbor” question with a parable (but it ends with a question as well.)

The Parable Jesus tells is about a man that is beaten, robbed and left for dead on the road side and the reactions of three by-passers.

1. Priest - a religious person who just ignored the beaten man and just kept on walking
2. Levite - a church worker, stops to look at the man but decides to walk away without helping
3. A Samaritan - a person not liked by the jewish community, considered the low of the low. The Samaritan cared for the injured man and took him where he received additional help and paid for it all.

Jesus ends the telling of this parable with the question, “Which of the three was a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”

The answer is the Samaritan - the one who knew the heart of God and acted on that - the one who had mercy on the robbed and beaten man.

Jesus said to the expert, “Go and do likewise.” It’s not that we earn our way into heaven by doing nice things. There’s only one way to heaven and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Only One way into eternal life and that is the Lord Jesus Christ - through the willingly shed blood of the Lamb of God who laid down His life the sins of the world - for each of us. And when we know and understand that - it changes us from the inside out, because when the change happens we look at people differently and we’re looking at ourselves differently.

We tend to think we’re “better than so and so,” but what God is saying is - we all desperately need what only He can provide; mercy, kindness, forgiveness and life. These He offer us, not because of what WE do but because of what JESUS has
done.

There’s a realization:
- God is good - so so good
- We can no longer look at ourselves as better than others
- We want to be more and more like Jesus

We put our faith into practice by the things that we do. Fatih is shown by our behavior. It is not a matter of religion. Instead, faith tells us that because of what God has done, we want to do whatever He would have us do.

Jesus is still asking us the question today: “Which of the three was a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?” Do we, like the Samaritan, understand the heart of God and love others as we have first been loved by God. Do we hear Jesus saying
today, “Go and do likewise.”

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

https://www.awakeusnow.com

The Parables of Jesus is part two of our Two Year Study of the Gospels. Jesus is known for telling some of the greatest stories ever told. In telling these stories He uses the form of a parable which is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus’ parables resonate in every culture and in every generation around the world.

This study is great for large group. small group or home group Bible study.