Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and a fabulous Christmas, and a joyful mix with friends and family through this holiday season. Welcome to The Church Ministries 56th Sunday Service. I thank my God that most of us that are here today or any day that we can share the love of God and the fellowship of our Lord Jesus. I myself have suffered a few tears this holiday but it has been a better one then the last few years, even though I am suffering greatly and have been confined to my home and church office for a year, I still was able to convey a lot of love and prayer to many reaches of the world. I also whish to thank all of the prayer ministries that by us helping everyone on their lists that are suffering, we find joy by helping others, also I have been able to receive many gentle notes of thanks, prayers, added strength and joy through all the emails that have been sent out by the church. We which to thank His Will Ministry Mary and Jay, and we wish to thank Jeff at the at the Spiritual Warfare Prayer Warriors, Mike at Prayer Friends, Ken at the True Grace Ministries, all the people at the Prayer Chain, and there are many more but these are the main ones who The Church Ministries deal with the most. And we just want to thank God for all the other influence and thanks for all the other ministries and members and friends that have given me the help and loyal friendship that was so needed, plus that we all were able to share our love and our hearts. The list is so long I could be typing forever for each and every person that has sent me prayer requests and the numerous amounts of just single prayer partners we share with in this last year. I do thank the Lord for all the search engines and how the Church has grown through all the countries of Europe which is a big step, so now we basically are doing a bit of missionary work, getting out to all the different countries, like I have said last week, we have been still getting a lot of communications with ministries in India. We still are a simple church and just a small body of Christian believers that are called out and we still all follow biblical truth without any denomination. We don’t want to be big in the eyes of God or rich, just to be self supporting, and not out there selling tapes and movies and other things, we were going to send out certificates of different types, but I feel that is a wrong direction, I did put a page up for people to look at then but I haven’t had one comment for them so I probably will just drop the page. Prayer and knowledge and the bread of life, and the love of God, with our sermons and the photography are quite different. And all the links on the different relaxing films to know God and Jesus better and the digital tracks on the way to salvation is such another blessing to have. So my brothers and sisters God will reveal our next steps to take and we are all patient within this biblical church. I go in for my surgery on Wednesday and I will be seeing the brain surgeon for my next step on Tuesday and I see my angel doctor my regular physician on Monday, so if any of you all have the urge, please pray for your pastor that this week goes smoothly and that there is not any complications with any thing this week, thank you all!! So today for this week I have chosen the parable of the Good Samaritan so please open you bibles to Luke 10 verse 25.
Dear Loving Father, we are all here Lord, we are here to worship You and to thank You for all Your provisions You have given each and everyone of us. We are all praying for all the countries and families over in the west. We are all in deep sorrow feeling the hearts of all the people that are suffering; it is hard to have a Happy New Year with this major devastation of all these hurting people with the death toll rising continually. We pray Father for the survivors and the families that are separated, and the homes and shelters that are lost. We also pray for the families that have not found the rest of there children or the mothers or fathers and grandparents in their vast multiple searching. Lord, please we are asking for You to in some way through Your great power to have them all connect and rejoin each other and make them one family again. Father we pray for food and supplies to be brought in plentiful amounts to all the areas, and we pray for all the volunteers that are working around the clock to help all the hurting people. Father we are all praying for a miracle, for every individual that is suffering right now. Please Lord we see all this, as the signs of the end of the age. And we pray for salvation for the many that knew or just partially knew Christ. O Lord there is so much going on that we need Your Holy Spirit upon all of us, we are all in tears, some of us can feel the cries and the moans as the parents are looking over at there children that will be know more on this earth, but what we do know there are multitudes of souls with You right now. Some may be just asleep and some may be guiding and giving direction to the ones in heaven at this very moment. Father all we can say for this day after New Years is please be close to all your children for this next long year, if it is completed. We see the world changing and the prophesies being fulfilled, we are all looking forward to our Jesus returning soon and we all know and are preparing ourselves to not let our flesh take us into sin. We need to all of us stay in the arms of Jesus, and walk in the Spirit and Your statues, and not to follow our free wills at this time, we should be caring more for others and continue the path of obedience for Your name sake, and to continue to carry our crosses and our eternal gift of salvation. We are all here to meet with one another to express our love for You, Jesus, and the Spirit, plus at these times we should all be in constant prayer for so many thousands and thousands of people. We are also gathered here today and any day to express our love and thanksgiving for all the things You have done for all of us, and all of our lives. We wish to add a grateful blessing of thanks that You have granted us safety so we can tend to others needs with love and understanding and to help any part of our fellow man. In Jesus Name, Amen
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: "Teacher, what must I do to receive eternal life?" Luke 10:25 NIV
Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?" Luke 10:26 NIV
The Good Samaritan is one of those parables that are well known and many hospitals are named after this great Parable we also find the parable well known on the roadways and for Travelers and all kinds of different truck stops and rescue operations also the names of different types of churches and different types of helping hands ministries, and second hand shops.
There are many parallels in this parable and by the end it will be explained. I have done many amounts of research on this parable and I would say there are more then several ways to translate this parable and also how the scriptures coincide with one another. We have to conclude that this man like everyone else is trying to test our Lord. He knew and understood that the law demanded total devotion to God and love ones neighbors. We all know Jesus talked about these laws in many other places.
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “ Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matt. 19:16-22 NIV
As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Mark 10:17-22 NIV
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deut. 6:4-5 NIV
" Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. Lev. 19:18 NIV
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. Mark 12:28-34 NIV
As we open we have laid down a foundation of the characters. We have the “wounded man” the bandits, “the priest” and the Levite which is basically the assistant to the priest. The wounded man is a picture of suffering human being as many in this world and the priest and the Levite are the most educated in the law, and also they would normally be the people that are the living aids to this man.
But the Samaritan who was the least chosen one out of all, you would think would take care of a Jew being they had been at conflict for many years. As we now dig deeper into this parable we will open up three basic rules for loving our neighbor. Not showing love in any particular situation is easy to make excuses but it is never right. Remember our neighbor can be any human walk of life, any color, any belief, any ethnic background or geographical background or culture. So we have to love and show our love to any and everyone that needs help in any way we can around where we live or be any form of communication may it be a letter, and email or just holding someone’s hand sitting by a hospital room.
That is where I myself have so much to give, if there was any friend in the hospital I would be there, if there was anyone that needed prayer and choice words to give them strength and hope to take that next step toward faith, belief, and healing and now you see I am the one on the other side of the stick. That is why at times I am lost for words. I was a healthy human being working in a large crowd talking and ministering to hundreds of people a day, I gave them inspiration and taught the word and gave examples of great faith. Now the shoe is on the other foot and I am the one lying on the side of the road, hurt and my energy is just coming out of me everyday and all I could do is the refreshment of our Lord Jesus and the Father. I still look everyday down that path for someone to pick me up and take me to a place of rest and clean my wounds in the physical sense, not the spiritual.
As we all know there was a deep hatred between the Jews and Samaritans. The Jews considered themselves to be pure and the selected race of descendants of Abraham. The Samaritans were a mixed race that were a group of Jews, intermarried with Canaanites from the Northern Kingdom after the exile. So as we look at this hatred and why it really does not make much sense to me. This legal lawyer character did not think that the Samaritan at all would show the act of love, which leaves many questions to us all. Let us return to the beginning, back to the layers and questions which again as we see as a challenge and now we have other scriptures as another parable reference point. The question takes a different road or maybe different directions, we now look at what shall I do to inherit. Inherit something is to receive it. The question seems to change to be put another way, the man is asking what I must do to share in the reward at the Resurrection of the righteous at the end.
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:10-14 NASB
Let us bring up a point up about the well at Samaritans. The woman at the well began to argue she had no idea she was speaking to Jesus the Messiah. The proper place of worship was a never ending debate between the Jews and the Samaritans. The Samaritans heard that this mountain was sacred and the real name was Mount Gerizim Abraham and Jacob had built alters in the general vicinity and many blessings came about within this area for many people. Moses commanded an alter to be built.
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” John 4:19-24
The Samaritans built a temple on Mt. Gerizim 400BC, which the Jews destroyed in 128, so both actions of course, increased hostility between the both groups. The Samaritans Bible was only the Pentateuch so they did not have much revelation about the Messiah and the salvation is of the Jews and that the Messiah would be a Jew. So now as Jesus was speaking and the place does not matter as he begins to say, as in true worship, truth is a major quotation and spirit meaning we have to follow Gods nature which is spirit filled, like today.
As we go back to the beginning to inherit something is to receive it. So in essence he is saying what I must do to share in the reward at the Resurrection of righteousness in the end. It lingers in the hope of the resurrection (Dan.12:2) Jesus just made the man have himself answer his own question. Deut 6:5 was recited, twice a day, by every faithful Jew. This text was a general centralization and a standard of the law.
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Dan. 12:2
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deut. 6:4-5 NIV
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Luke.10:38-42
As we direct the love of God in v38-42 we realize that Mary seamed to Martha that she was not doing anything but she was sitting by Jesus and worshipping him. Jesus commended the man but he added his own dash of divine knowledge. We all know the man was not interested in truth; he was setting him up to test him. But in turn Jesus got him back in essence, you cannot quote the law, you have to do it in order to live. That is happening all over. People can memorize scripture, but they do not know how to live it! I had a man that knew the Bible, backwards and forwards, but he did not have any practical application of life in him. He never did anything or went anywhere and he always had everything in life and never had to suffer. He lived in the same town, the same house, and so he never experienced real life. He sat there and memorized scripture. Like in everyday life, you have to do, or act the scriptures, not just quote them.
So this man would do the same as this man I used to know. The Jew was on the spot. So the law states, love your neighbor. It was the same with this Jewish man and the man that I knew. He did not love anyone because the law did not tell him to love any specific person. So he figured he would try to trick Jesus up here, so he says,” well who is my neighbor?” The same situation with this man. I would be in a class study and he would come across and totally take apart a scripture and did not give the right meaning to it at all. I would stand up and read right from the notes of the Bible and he would argue the point. Then he would start saying other scriptures from memory to win the crowd over to prove that he was right. It did not prove he was right to me, he just confused everyone else into thinking he know scripture so he had to win this argument. Then I would attempt to read the Biblical notes and then he would change the Scripture the same with this Jewish lawyer. That was during the old days, for me. I wish I could have told a story like Jesus did here, when he began to open with the short perfect meaningful story of the Good Samaritan.
In the beginning, in the garden, there was no need to ask questions. God and man were straight forward there was not no need for questions because there wasn’t any sin. When there is sin or people do not want to answer a question, they ask a question to confuse the person asking the question, so as soon as sin entered into the world God had to ask his first question, where are you? And of course Adam was hiding in shame. (Gen.3.9)So in the beginning when Satan tempted Eve to question Gods authority, that is when confusion entered into all of our lives. (1 Cor. 14:33), for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. so that is why peoples are always asking questions. It is something people just do not realize today, asking questions. I sat in a classroom in a particular school and there was a person who asked questions all the time, everyday, most of the time. The teacher had to stop the lecture and answer a question that completely made no sense. Some of the teachers would stutter because they did not know how to answer a simple question. To tell you the truth this person became so popular because of upsetting the class and the teacher so many times, this person was voted the class president because no one else knew anyone else to vote for. So after a long period of time, as confusion set in on the Jewish nature, centuries went by and the Jews did not know who to love or who not to love. So as time went on if the person did not agree with the Jew, the Jew would not like them. So as we go back to the religious Jew asking the same rhetorical question, place ourselves in Genesis after Cain killed Abel God asked Cain where is your brother, Abel Cain came back trying to cover up what he just did to Abel, defending himself and not loving his neighbor so to speak. Am I my brother’s keeper? Love is a great key in this parable. You have to be able to love God and your neighbor at the same time. Thus the whole story is who is my neighbor? So the scripture before all of this Jesus is explaining love about the Father (Luke 10:22)"My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Luke 10:23-24)Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, "How privileged you are to see what you have seen. I tell you, many prophets and kings have longed to see and hear what you have seen and heard, but they could not."
The man answered, " `You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, `Love your neighbor as yourself. " Luke 10:27 NIV
"Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!" Luke 10:28
The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Luke 10:29
Jesus replied with an illustration: "A Jewish man was traveling on a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes and money, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. Luke 10:30 NIV
"By chance a Jewish priest came along; but when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Luke 10:31-32 NIV
This whole story is about love and loving God and others. We see by the facts. The Jews were very high and mighty and if someone did not agree with their issues they would not like them. Jesus is full of love and so is God, God loves his children and we are expected to love everyone else in (Matt.5:43) "You have heard that the Law of Moses says, `Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. So the Jews were basing there life style on the Law of Moses, so when Jesus added in 5:44-45 the Jews basically did not want to listen to what Jesus had to say. So it is quite simple that we are to love everyone in order to be apart of the Kingdom and with God. You cannot love God and hate people then you will not be part of the Kingdom or part of Gods family. So if we hold anything against anyone it is the same to say we are holding something against God. As the story is well renowned with all different meanings and teachings, we have to imagine the trip and what it was like. It was a long descent of 17 miles and Jerusalem is 2,500ft above sea level and Jericho is 800 feet below sea level. The road was rocky, a totally desolate area, and it provided many places for robbers to hide and be able to pounce on simple travelers and be robbed and attacked, in my research, that same road is the same way today. The road is still a place where robbers hide in caves and it is a dangerous road to travel. Now we have to analyze why this man was by himself on the road that was so dangerous, but then again the robbers did not bother the Priest the Levite or the Samaritan. We also have to figure the Samaritan had much more to rob and he had a donkey, probably with many supplies. He had wine and olive oil. He had money and the man at the inn, even let him slide for a while, so he was giving him trust fund. Why did he not get robbed? Remember, this is just a parable, a story.
"Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt deep pity. Kneeling beside him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver and told him to take care of the man. `If his bill runs higher than that,' he said, `I'll pay the difference the next time I am here.' Luke 10:33-35
This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 1John 3:11 NIV
14If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to eternal life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 1John 3:14 NIV
Anyone who hates another Christian is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters. 1John 3:15-16 NIV
You see, no one we have to discuss this with, the priest and the Levite, I learned these principals from in school, long ago, and in all the bible notes, has no mention of the meaning behind why they just walked by but there where so many other conditions and Laws.
Since contact with a dead body made a person unclean some of the priests ministered before the alter of the Lord, while the were unclean they could not perform their duties. (Lev 21:11) The high priest could not be unclean at all even the death of his father and mother. You see there are a lot of different consequences that a priest has to go through if he is on his way to perform a ceremony and there were a lot of priests and each one took turns and this may be the priest’s only chance, but he should have seen if the man was dead of alive. When we weigh more importance on ones self and there career then a human life. I find that how can you perform a holy ceremony when you might have just let a man die because you did not want to be unclean. Now the Levite was way up there too, but he was more or less the worship leader, to teach people how to worship God. Now this guy was worried about getting his feathers messed up and his clothes bloody, and that he would not be able to be a good representative because this guy did not want to get dirty and maybe he too would loose his place in his career.
"All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification; then they will be purified. But if they do not do this on the third and seventh days, they will continue to be unclean even after the seventh day. All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the Lord’s Tabernacle and will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues. Num. 19:11-13 NIV
"But those who become defiled and do not purify themselves will be cut off from the community, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Since the water of purification has not been sprinkled on them, they remain defiled. This is a permanent law. Those who sprinkle the water of purification must afterward wash their clothes, and anyone who touches the water of purification will remain defiled until evening. Anything and anyone that a defiled person touches will be ceremonially defiled until evening." Num. 19:20-22 NIV
The LORD said to Moses, "Tell the priests to avoid making themselves ceremonially unclean by touching a dead relative unless it is a close relative--mother or father, son or daughter, brother or virgin sister who was dependent because she had no husband. As a husband among his relatives, he must not defile himself. Lev. 21:1-4 NIV
He must never defile himself by going near a dead person, even if it is his father or mother. Lev 21:11 NIV
"Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?" Jesus asked.
The man replied, "The one who showed him mercy."
Then Jesus said, "Yes, now go and do the same." Luke 10:36-37 NIV
So at the end of the story Jesus added a Samaritan into the fold and He made it a point not to hold any type of race, ethnic, culture or discrimination to the whole plot.
In closing for another week Dear Gracious Savior, You have made each day a day of triumph through Your resurrection. You are so merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Dear Father watch over the members and all our friends and other ministries and lead them all daily in righteousness. We thank You for another week and we thank You that You have made me well enough to keep up with all the duties of the church, I am sorry if I cannot get to a written response to every prayer request, but after all of this medical stuff is over, please Lord help us get back to the way things were when we first opened. As we go out into our daily lives this week Father please help us to concentrate on others and not for ourselves, let us have the mind of Christ, and with His attitude and love, and grant us that every word that we utter and every act that we perform will reveal Your presence in all our lives. In Jesus Name, Amen and Amen
