Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Are you a neighbor? What does it mean to be a neighbor? Back during the late 60s until 2000, there was a show on TV, very well-known show called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. How many of you have seen that show? Yeah, great show, right? Will you be my neighbor? That was the theme of the show, 895 episodes, which is crazy to think about, almost 900 episodes that show lasted. In this passage of scripture, Christ discuss what it means to be a neighbor. Here in this passage of scripture, the Lord is confronted by or asked questions by a lawyer. A lawyer back then is a little different than a lawyer today. A lawyer back then was an expert in the scriptures. He was a scribe. And so his full-time job was someone who basically was a human copying machine. They spent most of their day copying the scriptures. They didn't have copy machines, they didn't have printers. And so to have new copies of the scriptures, they had to be hand copied. And because of that, if your job all day was handwriting the scriptures, you'd get pretty good at knowing them. You would know them very thoroughly. And so lawyers were looked at, scribes were looked at as experts on the law. That's the word that we see here, the word lawyer. They were experts on the law, and they could be expected to know quite a lot about scripture, and they were well-respected for that. And so here in this passage of scripture, it says in verse 25, and behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him. He was trying the Lord. He says, it says, saying, Master, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, that's that's a vital question. That's an important question. And so Jesus rightly asked his lawyer, he says, he said unto them, him, what is written in the law? How read us out? What does the law say? Now, we know from the Old Testament law that the law was given to show us our need to salvation. It was never given to to save, because in order to to receive salvation by the law, you'd have to keep it perfectly. Completely which is impossible and the Bible reveals that that was the purpose of the law It wasn't to save it was the given to convict but the reality was is if someone could completely keep the law They would have eternal life. It's just impossible for us as Sinners to be able to do that. And so Jesus says to him what is written in law. I'll read us out You're an expert. What does the law say? And this lawyer in verse 27 says, and he answered and 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. The two great commands. Jesus later says in the scriptures that all the law and the prophets, the entire Old Testament hangs on these two commands. In fact, all of the Old Testament laws hung under these two commands. to love God completely, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The thing about the law is it's given to convict. And a lot of times when the law is applied to us, we'd like to sidestep it. We try to find loopholes, because it convicts and it hurts. And we don't like it when God convicts us from his word. And there's really two responses we can have. We can either yield ourselves to it and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. I need you. I need your forgiveness. Or we could say, well, that doesn't apply to me, or that actually means this, or we try to excuse yourself, we try to find loopholes, and that is what this man tried to do. It says here in verse 28, and Jesus said, and he said unto him, thou hast answered right, this do, if you can do these things, and thou shalt live. But in verse 29, it says, but he, the sawyer, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In other words, he was trying to justify himself. He was trying to declare himself righteous. And realizing how the law impacted him for whatever reason, the part that impacted him the most, that convicted him, was this part about being a neighbor. And we don't know this lawyer. We don't know what part of that convicted him or how that applied to him in his life. But for some reason it did, and so he asked this question. Well, okay, I'm to love my neighbor as myself, but who is that? Who is my neighbor? What does it mean to be a neighbor? A lot of times when we think about ourselves and being a neighbor, it has to do with really who lives next door. If I was to ask you who's your neighbor, you'd give me probably a very specific answer. If you asked me, I would think, well, there are three people that live next to us. There's Tony, who lives behind us. We live sort of on a cul-de-sac, a bit of a dirt road cul-de-sac. And so there's Tony who lives behind us. And then there's a couple of the mosses that live right next door to us. And then up the drive, there's another family, sort of two different families. There's a separate house there. And that's what's on our cul-de-sac. They are our neighbors. But Jesus defines neighboring being a little bit differently. And we see here in this passage why being a neighbor is important and what it will cost us. Jesus seeks to explain this concept. And so he does what he does so often. He uses a parable to explain it. One of the greatest parables, I might add, probably in the New Testament, one of them, if we were to rank them, which we probably shouldn't. But it says in verse 30, it says, in Jesus' answer, he 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. So we see the background of this. Here's a gentleman, and in a day where travel was dangerous, he chose to travel one of the most dangerous roads, the road to Jericho by himself. It was about a 17-mile trek through a very windy road that was rugged and bleak and rocky, and robbers could easily hide. And in a day in which normal travel was dangerous, this route was especially so. And understandably, he was assaulted. He was stripped of his raiment, so he was robbed. He is wounded, and he was left for dead. It says literally that he was half dead. So this man now is in serious danger. He is dying. He is, from what we gather, naked. He has nothing. and if not helped, he will die. That is his fate. Thankfully, this is a well-traveled road, and we meet three individuals that travel this road. Jesus describes three. And in verse 31, it says, by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. This religious leader would have been coming from Jerusalem. He would have finished his duties. He wasn't ignoring this damaged and beat up Jew because he was needing to be clean or he was going to the temple to do his duties. He was leaving. He had done his duties. He was a priest. He had been in Jerusalem to help at the temple with sacrifices and many of the priestly duties there. It was a very important job. He knew the law, and yet he decided to not be a neighbor. He rejected this man in need, a fellow Jew. He rejects him, a person that we would assume would help. And in verse 32, it says, and likewise he, Levite, when he was at that place, came and looked on him, and passed by the other side. He sees the man. He's a Levite. He had been in Jerusalem probably to help with various temple services and functions and cleaning and lots of different things. They didn't offer sacrifices, but they helped with a lot of other of the temple duties that needed to be accomplished and done. And he sees the man and says, I'm not going to help. Maybe he didn't have time. That's how he felt. Or didn't want to dirty himself. This is going to be a messy business. And I might add, too, that being a neighbor often can be a messy business. Helping people. Serving people. is often a hard, messy, costly, time-consuming business. And it's easy to go, yeah, I don't have time for that. I don't want to get involved in that mess and that person's life and this or that drama. And that's what these men were doing. They could have helped, but they chose not to. But here we see a person that was willing to help, an unlikely individual to help. It says in verse 33, a Samaritan helps. Verse 33, it says, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. The Samaritans were enemies of the Jews. They hated each other. The Samaritans were the descendants of a group of people that after Assyria had conquered the 10 northern tribes of Israel, the Assyrians, in order to keep them in check, brought in foreign nations and other captives into the land to be able to live there. And eventually, they intermarried and they created their own culture. Half Jew and half Gentile. Their own culture, their own lifestyle, their own religion even. In fact, when Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at the well, and she says, well, it's in this mountain we worship. And they had their own temple, and their own mountain, and their own law. They had their own religion. And the Jews hated Samaritans. They didn't follow the Lord. They didn't follow the law. And they were disgusting, despised people. And in like manner, the Samaritans really didn't care for the Jews either. And yet here in this specific situation, this Samaritan sees the same person with the same needs. But there's a difference, it says, and he had compassion on him. Simply put, he had pity. He felt sympathy. He felt bad for him. This word compassion is used frequently in the New Testament, used 16 times, 11 of those times it's used to actually describe the Lord. Jesus Christ, he had compassion on the multitudes. That term is used over and over again to describe our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a compassionate individual. He had compassion on the lost, and he wanted to meet their needs. And this kind of compassion is something that needs to be found in our lives. In fact, in order to be a neighbor, we need to have this type of compassion. Do we have that compassion? Do we have pity on those that have needs? Well, what took place here? What did it mean to be a neighbor? It wasn't just enough to go, man, this guy is in rough shape. I feel bad for him. No, being a neighbor was more involved in that. What took place? Well, in this passage, it says here, it says he went to him, got off his animal, And he walks over to him and says, 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 and in 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. This is the cost of being a neighbor. I don't know what his schedule was, but whatever his schedule was, it was now taken up on this individual. This was not going to be an easy process. This was going to cost him time. It was hassle. It was work. It was nasty. He had to come up with some bindings to bind up his wound. He had to give up some oil and wine to clean out this wound and dress it properly. He then gives up his beasts. puts him on his animal, his donkey or whatever it was, a horse, and he gives up his ride. And this man gets to ride to the inn. He goes to the inn, and it says here that he gave out two pens. Two denarii, two days' wages. Think you're what you make in a day. Multiply it times two. And that's how much he paid to take care of this complete stranger that he had never met before, sworn enemy of the Jews, the Samaritan. And yet, he pays two days wages to care for him, to provide a room, to provide a place of recovery. And he tells the innkeeper, when I come back by here again, if I owe more than that, I will pay that as well. Being a neighbor, is a time-consuming, costly thing. It is not an easy thing to do. It takes love. It takes love. One person said, love should not be limited by its object. See something, see someone. I don't like them, so I'm not gonna love. Love should not be limited by its object. Its extent and its quality are in the control of this subject. Furthermore, love is demonstrated in action. In this case, in an act of mercy. It may be costly, cloth, wine, oil, transportation, money, and sacrifice of time. Love is demonstrated in action. Are we a neighbor to the people around us? Are we a biblical neighbor? Jesus gives this illustration, and then notice the impact of being a neighbor, what this means. First of all, notice the impact of the lawyer. In verse 36, Jesus says to this lawyer, he says, which now of these three? The priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan. He says, which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves? The lawyer probably didn't appreciate the illustration. He's probably very convicting, honestly. But as he listens and thinks through it, he realizes the simple answer is clear. And he says in verse 37, and he said, he that showed mercy on him. Actually, it would have been easier to just say the Samaritan. It's interesting that he, it's like he can't even say the word, Samaritan. The guy that showed mercy, he's not incorrect. Then said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. In our lives, God has given to us many neighbors. Those neighbors may be people that we don't like very much. Maybe they're a workmate or someone you work with that just gets on your nerves. Maybe it's a family member that you saw at Christmas and you had forgotten how annoying they were. The problems that you have with them or whatever it is. Maybe it's a friend. Maybe it's a loved one. Maybe it's actually a neighbor and you don't get along. And God says, you know what, you need to minister them, you need to love them, you need to care for them. And that's hard. It may be someone that comes across your path this week and you go, man, I don't have time to deal with that. And yet, that is the definition of being a neighbor. This impacts us everywhere. This impacts us here. This impacts us over in New Zealand. You see, our neighbor is not just the three families that live next to us on our little cul-de-sac off our road. That's not what it means to be a neighbor. Being a neighbor means reaching out and ministering to people who have had rough situations. I remember when we were on deputation going, helping with a bus ministry over at my parents' church up in Lansing, Michigan. And we were ministering there, and we went to this apartment complex, and we were getting ready to go in and talk to this family. And as we went in, they said, hey, listen, when we go in there and we talk to these people, don't sit on any of the furniture. This place is infested in bedbugs. And I thought, oh, man. And we went in there, and we were in there probably half an hour talking. And they offered us a seat, and we didn't sit. And I thought, this is disgusting, it really is. But being a neighbor meant ministering those people. I remember in New Zealand early on, there's a couple that were hard to minister to. And when we first met them, they had, Problem, because under their house, they had collected up months and months worth of trash and trash bags. It was filled. There were dozens and dozens and dozens of bags down there. And it was, they'd been sitting there under the house, and we had to go in there, Garth and I, and Lynette, I think, was there that day, I forget who else, was there helping. And we helped for a couple hours pulling out bags of old rubbish. Old trash, sorry, that's a New Zealand word, rubbish, trash. And hauling it up and putting it in a trailer to take to the dump. And it was gross, and it stank, and it was nasty. And it was how God wanted us to minister to those people that day. Ministering to people, being a neighbor, is not always a pretty thing. And I'm not just patting myself on the back. There have been times where I've really struggled with this. But that's what it means to minister to people. And that's not just the job of your pastor. That's not just the job of your missionaries. That's the job of a Christian. And a lot of times we think, well, being a neighbor means having an order for coffee and having a sweet conversation. Sometimes, yes. But it also might be taking care of their trash or helping them with a messy, nasty problem. And God wants us to be a biblical neighbor. It is often a essential requirement for sharing the gospel. Yes, we're to go. Yes, we're to share. But a lot of times love is also in action. And as we do that, we have even greater opportunities to be able to share the gospel and to minister to people. And God brings these people across our path, sometimes completely unexpectedly. And we say, Lord, I guess you want me to minister them. What are we going to do? Are you a biblical neighbor. First of all, I want to ask this question. Do you have eternal life? That was the question first asked in this passage of scripture. That's what the Samaritan said. Lord, how can I have eternal life? If you're here today and you don't know Christ as your savior, if there has not been a time in your life, you realize you're a sinner and you called upon the savior for salvation and trusted him as savior, then you need that eternal life today. And if you have not made that decision, make it today. Secondly, Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Are you a neighbor? Or are you, do you pick and choose? Oh, I'll be a neighbor to that person, but I'm gonna neglect those people. You don't know what those people are like. You don't know what that individual is like. No, but God does. Are you a biblical neighbor? The application from this passage of scripture is clear, and it's found in verse 36 and 37. Jesus said to the lawyer, he said, which now of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said unto him, he that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, go, it's that key word that was mentioned earlier, go and do thou likewise. I hope you do that, let's pray. Dear Lord and Heavenly Father.