JUST LIKE JESUS

April 23, 2005

Luke 10: 30- 37

INTRODUCTION:

1-    We all know the Story of the Good Samaritan!

2-    It’s a story about neighborly kindness Jesus was telling to a certain lawyer.

3-   The Samaritan was shown as the neighbor to the dying man lying by the wayside.

4-   As far as we know; that’s all that Jesus intended to teach.

BUT I BELIEVE THIS STORY IS SYMBOLIC TO MAN AND HIS LIFE IN THIS WORLD:

1-   So I’d like to lift if from its pages and use it as a figurative story.

2-    I’d like us to see this in a much deeper setting than the physical.

3-    I’d like us to see this man as a figure of all men.

4-    See him as traveling the same road that you and I are traveling today.

5-    Not necessarily from Jerusalem to Jericho!

LIFE OFTEN BECOMES A DOWNHILL ROAD FOR ALL OF US:

1-    This man could have been any man!

2-    This man could have been rich, poor, good or bad.

3-    This man could have been black, or white; he could have been important or un-important.

4-    Educated or ignorant!

BUT HE’S A TYPE OF ALL MEN:

1-    He went down from………

2-   Geographically the road that led from Jerusalem to Jericho was downhill.

3-   From the elevation of 2500 feet down to the Jordan valley is where Jericho was located.

4-   And don’t we all know that the road of life traveled by men is a downhill road?

5-    Men and rivers take the way of least resistance; always downgrade

6-    I could say as well that sewage also goes downhill.

7-    The road of life traveled by all men is a downhill road.

8-    It takes no energy to coast downhill!

WHEN I WAS IN HAITI:

1-      The guides would always coast down the mountain out of gear.

2-       It free wheels all the way down hill.

3-       A ball on unleveled ground will roll downhill.

4-      Gravity pulls downward; and so does SIN pull men down!

5-       A twig thrown into a running river will be carried all the way to the sea.

6-       And so are men caught in the current of life are carried to their destiny.

7-       And the river of life empties itself into the lake of fire!

8-       Think about it!

JERUSALEM TO JERICHO:

1-    To the Jews Jerusalem was the city of God!

2-    Jerusalem was the capital of their culture.

3-    It was the place where God dwelt to them.

4-    In Jerusalem was the Temple; in the Temple was the Holy of Holies.

5-   And in the Holy of Holies was the Shekinah glory the symbol of God’s presence!

6-   When Daniel prayed in Babylon, he raised his window and looked toward Jerusalem.

7-   To Daniel Gods dwelling place on earth was in Jerusalem.

BUT THIS MAN WASN’T GOING TO JERUSALEM; HE WAS GOING AWAY FROM JERUSALEM:

1-    With his back toward where God dwelt; he was headed to a wicked and worldly place.

2-    Jericho was the holiday ground for the Royal, a place of sin and the lust for it.

3-    The place of 10,000 demons a city of great wickedness.

HERE IS A MAN WHO HAD LEFT GOD AND SET HIS FACE TOWARD A GODLESS AND SINFUL WORLD:

1-    Typical of man; Man does not seek after God; but rather runs from God.

2-     Men are not trying to find God, they are dodging Him!

3-     Man is not climbing his way back to God; he’s coasting downhill farther and farther.

4-    Man is not becoming better & better; but worse and worse!

ALLOW YOURSELF TO DO IT AND:

1-    Your spiritual interest will soon go and your main interest will become worldly things.

2-    Man’s ambitions, plans, motives will all be slanted toward this world.

3-    And soon he’ll be living in Jericho with its pleasures and popularity.

4-     He has left Jerusalem with God and is rushing to indulge in the sins of Jericho!

SEE IT WITH ME:

1-   At the top of the Hill is Jerusalem; the city of God, Heaven!

2-    At the bottom of the hill is the eternal darkness of hell!

3-   Watch it! Look at it! Listen Up!

4-   Every one of us are traveling this road of life in one direction or the other.

5-   We’re either up or down.

6-   We’re headed toward Heaven or Hell!

7-   And if you’ve never repented; you’re headed toward Hell.

LIKE SO MANY TODAY; THIS MAN FELL AMONG THIEVES:

1-   Typical of the devil!

2-   They stripped him; beat him till he was black and blue!

3-   Ripped open his flesh, and left his broken, bleeding, nude body dying in ditch by the side of the road.

4-   That’s just like the devil himself!

5-   He’s man’s greatest enemy; and he’s out to get God’s chosen creation! Man!

6-   Satan, the pure Devil if you please is out to rob, kill and destroy!

7-   His main thrust is to strip you of all that is decent and morally good.

8-   Rob you of peace of mind, physically, mentally and spiritually.

9-   And when he’s finished wrecking your life;

10-He’ll throw you into the ditch, helpless and hopeless to die.

11-Beloved; the Devil is a terrible boss!

12-He’s a liar; the father of a lie; and to every sinner he is your taskmaster and slave driver.

13-He pays off with counterfeit funds.

14-Don’t listen to him! You’ll be sorry if you do!

THIS MAN WAS LEFT HALF DEAD:

1-    He is symbolic of the spiritual state of all men!

2-    Lost men have no life without Christ.

3-   Wounded, Half Dead that is death was at work in him and he couldn’t stop it.

4-   Beloved; Eternal/Spiritual death is at work in every unsaved man!

5-   Here is a man wounded, weak, broken, bloody, dying and forsaken!

6-   He is helpless to save himself; and has no remedy, no cure!

7-   He can’t lift himself out of the ditch; That my friends is a picture of the human race.

8-   Spiritually this man is wounded unto eternal death, he cannot save himself.

9-   But he realizes the only hope he has is in the Good Samaritan;

10-And the Good Samaritan is a type of Christ!

NOW SEE THE PRIEST; A TYPE OF THE LAW:

1-    The priest was in charge of carrying out the ritual of Jewish Religion.

2-    He is a type of the Law; but he passed by leaving the dying man to perish in the ditch.

3-    The Law cannot save a man! “By the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight”.

4-    The law will push you further down; it will kill and  condemn.

5-    The law cannot save you!

6-    It’s pitiful to watch man struggle under rules in an effort to save himself:

7-    Men are under bondage; struggling under the Law.

8-    But what the Law could not do; The Grace and Mercy of God Almighty can!

NOW SEE THE LEVITE; A TYPE OF MORALITY:

1-    The Levites were a special tribe; they lived by a strict moral code; they were well disciplined.

2-   The priests a type of the law; the Levites a type of morality.

3-    And neither could save the man!

4-   But what the Law could not do; What morality could not do; God can do!

5-   And here He comes down the road in the person of the Good Samaritan.

NOW SEE THE SAMARITAN:

1-   One day God looked down the road from Heaven and saw lost humanity.

2-   Helpless, & Hopeless, dying by the wayside having been ditched by life.

3-   He went to him; He must save him; He loves the race of unlovely men; this rotten humanity.

4-   He went to where he was; God’s own Son stepped down from Heaven.

5-   He laid aside His royal robe; Set aside His crown of Majesty.

6-   He wrapped Himself in human flesh, boarded a chariot called the Holy Ghost.

7-   And swept across the dark skies from Eternity into time!

8-   God became man, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and was laid in a manger.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God;

Made Himself of no reputation; took the form of a servant.

And was made in the likeness of men; Humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2: 5-8

CONSTRAINED BY COMPASSION; SALVATION CAME TO US BY JESUS CHRIST

1-    He went into the ditch of suffering and death.

2-    Friends; this is what Jesus wants to do today for you!

3-    He put His loving arms under the bleeding, dying bruised man.

4-    Lifted him up out of the ditch of degradation and bound up his wounds & poured in the oil and the wine.

5-   That my friend is Salvation; Jesus came to heal the wounds inflicted by Satan.

6-   He washes them clean in His blood and pours in His Holy Spirit.

HEREIN IS SALVATION; THE SAMARITAN EXCHANGED PLACES WITH THE MAN:

1-   He simply got off his beast; down into the ditch; lifted the man up and put him on his beast.

2-    Is that the picture of Christ to you today?

HE DESCENDED HIS THRONE; & came to this world:

1-   He picked me up out of the ditch of sin; and set me upon His throne in heaven;

2-   He exchanged places with me!

POSITIONALLY; HERES WHAT HE DID FOR ALL OF US:

1-   He took my hell & gave me His Heaven;

2-   He took my death and gave me His Life!

3-   He took my sins and gave me His righteousness;

4-   He took my place as a dying man and gave me His place as a Son of God!

5-   And today you and I are seated in the heavenlies; adopted into the family of God.

6-   God my Father; Jesus my elder brother; and we’re heirs and joint heirs with Him!

THE CHURCH:

1-   And he brought him to an Inn,

2-    The church is the established Inn here on earth to care for those whom He saves.

3-    Here you can keep warm and be fed to grow.

ONE DAY HE SAID;

1-    I must go to My Father; It’s expedient that I go away.

2-   And He was taken up in a cloud and ascended to the Father.

BUT HE’S COMING AGAIN:

1-   When I come again; still sounds like Jesus doesn’t it?

2-   The first time He walked leaving bloody tracks and carried His cross.

3-   And wore a crown of thorns!

4-   But the next time you see Him; He’ll carry a rod of Iron; a scepter of authority!

5-   The next time He’ll wear a crown of glory and sit upon a throne!

THE NEXT TIME WILL BE PAY DAY:

“I will repay thee”!

1-    Still sounds like Jesus!

And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man… Rev. 22: 12

         For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works. Mt. 16: 27

FRIENDS; PAYDAY IS COMING:

1-    Are you ready for Jesus to come?

2-    He’ll repay you for all you’ve spent.

3-    No more; No less; So what have you spent for Jesus?

4-    If He came today; how much would your check be?