Northside Church - Sydney
Never Ending Story Week 5 PM: The Power of One
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, guys, it was 2001 and my tour bus stopped at a T-junction in Israel, just not far from Jerusalem. And the sign said to Jericho, "And a sigh rippled through the bus, as our tour guide said, 'I'm really sorry, we're not going to Jericho.'" And he said, "Oh gosh, because I really wanted to go there. It was on our itinerary." He said, "There's been some trouble there in the last few days and the violence is escalated." So we can't go there. In 1994, Jericho was handed over to the Palestinian Authority. It's a Palestinian township today and there is a very volatile situation and it kind of comes and goes as to whether you can actually go to that town. It's one of the oldest continuous occupancy cities in the world. It can trace its beginnings back 9,000 years and there's just a little under 20,000 people live in Jericho today and it's about 30, just a little less than 30 kilometers from Jerusalem. So this would have been quite a trick for this man, presuming he went from Jerusalem to Jericho, as the Bible says, it would have been quite a trick. Mind you, it was only meant to be a story. This didn't actually happen. It was like so many of Jesus' parables, it's just a story to illustrate a point. But here's something that's a little bit crass on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho today. You can actually see this. Have a look at this. If you get a chance to do it, that's an inn, which is called the Samaritans Inn and it's supposed to be the inn where the Good Samaritans stayed overnight with the injured traveler. And that's where it all sort of came to a climax. I mean, that's crass commercialism, isn't it? Because it was only ever intended to be a story, nothing more, nothing less. But that's it. It's there on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Guys, Jesus chose some story components that would have been really familiar to the people who were listening to his story. He chose carefully in this masterful story. He chose an eminent teacher of the law. He's the one who asked the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? He chose a traveler. They all would have identified with that because people traveled by foot and on the back of donkeys and so on. That would have been a very clear image for them. He chose a priest and he chose a Levite. And for his Jewish hearers, these were prominent leaders within the temple system. They would have instantly identified them. But then he was the shocker. He chose a Samaritan. And of course, you've probably been around church enough, many of you to know that in biblical times the Samaritans were hated by the Jewish people. There were a whole bunch of reasons for this, but they were despised. So some of the key components for a compelling story were chosen by Jesus in this masterful way. There's a little touch of politics, you know, the lawyer. That was the political scene in those days. There's this power, the Levite and the priest. They were. They had a lot of power. There's a religious component. There's violence. There's suffering. There's everything except sex in this story to make it a really, really interesting story. I want to put the spotlight on one or two of these components, and I can't weave that in. I'm sorry tonight. I know you'd like me to do that if I can't. I want to drop onto a couple of the components of this story because, you know, this is as up to date, this story is as up to date today as any modern story. I want to give us a bit of an insight tonight as to what the situation is with the power of compassion and mercy. Because they're the two overwhelming elements of this story, compassion and mercy. First of all, there's the Jericho Road. Guys, as we begin to think about and reflect upon the significance of that road and the robbery that took place on that road, one thing becomes clear to me at least, the Jericho Road is any place where people are robbed. Robbed of their dignity, their self-worth, their self-respect, their independence, robbed of a friend or a loved one through grief and loss or through a broken relationship. Have you travelled on the Jericho Road? I know many of you have. I know some of you are travelling on that road right now. Jericho Road, it's a busy road. There are a lot of people at any one time in our lives on the Jericho Road. The crisis that hit the unsuspecting traveller on the Jericho Road was sudden, was without warning and it was traumatising. As many of life's crises are on the Jericho Road and it's in these situations of pain, of sadness, of loss, of despair and disillusionment that the people of God are meant to really shine. It's within the family of God, the qualities of compassion and mercy are supposed to be just blinking all the time like beacons and because we serve somebody, we serve one who invites people who are tired of carrying heavy loads who are burdened down by the pressures of the Jericho Road. We serve one who says, "Come to me, I'll lighten your load. I'll stand with you. I'll walk with you. I'll be there for you." That's why this story is so shocking. It's shocking because the two religious people in the story are the ones who walk by and do nothing, absolutely nothing and that's a shocking component to this story. A hush would have fallen over the crowd as the master storyteller Jesus Christ unfolded this amazing incident. A hush would have fell over the crowd. Why are these characters, a priest, a Levite? We love these guys. They serve us in the temple. Why are they being portrayed as the really bad guys in this story? They should be slaughtered in as the heroes but they're being portrayed as people that we can't stand because they're walking by and they're watching somebody suffer. Where's the compassion? Where's the mercy? These guys knew the Scriptures. They knew the Scriptures of the day. They knew passages like Micah 6, verse 8. God has showed us what is good and what does the Lord require of us to act justly and love mercy. These guys would have taught this kind of stuff to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Oh, these guys are walking all right but they weren't walking humbly with God though walking on the other side of the road to avoid a situation of great need and I'm willingness to show mercy which guys when you think about it, it's probably the worst thing that can be leveled at a believer to have shown and to have been seen to show a lack of mercy, a lack of compassion given what we're all about, given what Jesus Christ is on about. That's probably the worst thing that a person of faith can be accused of. After all, Jesus in this story is linking one's entry into eternity directly with the level of mercy that has been shown or in this case not shown. The original question was what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus is not talking about how much scripture we know, not talking about how many gifts we've got or which particular gifts we've got, he's not talking about our sort of longevity in the church, he's talking about a situation where compassion and mercy are needed and so he's equating that to one's entry into eternity, it's to love God and to show mercy to your neighbor as you would yourself. And guys, like I said a moment ago, this story is as up to date as today's headlines because it beautifully encapsulates the way things are today when it comes to mercy. You see, it talks about the takers of mercy, in this case the unscrupulous robbers, no thought whatsoever for the interests of the man, pure looking after their own interests, couldn't care less about the man, they're attacking and the one they just left bleeding and dying. You don't have to be a hardcore criminal to be a taker of mercy, you just have to be someone who doesn't care, who couldn't care less, who looks at the world's tragedies and the situation in society and just like, hammy another drink, wins the next party, I couldn't care less, it doesn't affect me, I'm not involved, sorry, talk to the hand, like you don't have to be a criminal to be a robber, a taker of mercy, if you're with whole mercy, that's kind of in a sense of robbing and taking it away from somebody who's desperately in need of it, and there are a lot of people in the western world who are like that. Only slightly more aware and more enlightened than the takers of mercy are the talkers of mercy, those who are prepared to join the debate, to have the conversation, to submit the research paper, join the committee or the task group or the think tank and talk about the world's problems and all the difficulties that we face, but when it comes to traction, when it comes to getting hands dirty, actually getting involved, they've got nothing, they that's the irony of this story, they would have been talking about mercy all the time in the temple, in front of their young students as they imparted to them the traces of what we know as the Old Testament, in their weekly sermons, it would have been all about mercy and love and justice, that Jewish faith is renowned for that, but when it came to a practical real life situation, these two guys found reasons, in their mind, very good reasons, not to step in and show mercy, there was a newspaper photographer who was asked to go down into the inner city areas of the city and take a photograph that captured the plight of the homeless in the city and the young photographer reveled in the opportunity and the challenge, went downtown, spent a whole night taking lots of pictures and then he found the one that he really wanted, it was a homeless man under a bridge and he was in desperate shape, really down on his luck and the guy grabbed a photograph of this man just holding out his hand to a passerby, pleading for the help, he snapped the picture, it was beautiful, took it back to the editor and the editor was impressed, but he had a question, he said by the way son, what did you do for that man, like you were there, you saw him, what did you do, and embarrassingly with a lot of guilt, the guy said well I didn't do nothing, I just took the picture, which the editor wisely responded, you got the picture but you failed to get the message and that's where it is with a lot of people who talk about mercy, they get the picture, they know what's happening but they just fail to get the message and how it applies to them, that pretty much sums up the talker of mercy, finally of course there are the givers of mercy and the Samaritan was the giver of mercy and guys it was absolutely outrageous, as Sam so powerfully explained this morning, outrageous that Jesus would choose a Samaritan as the hero of the story because they were hated by the Jews, long running tensions, racial tensions, ethnic tensions, better differences in how they saw the faith. Today's equivalent, I'll give you an idea how shocking it is and it's very appropriate this week when our nation is once again being rocked by the tragedy of loss in Afghanistan, this would be like somebody getting up and telling the story of the good Taliban, you know, the Aussie soldier who gets separated from his unit in Afghanistan and he's in mortal danger and a Taliban guy comes along and takes pity on him and dresses his wounds and takes him to his shoulder, people get shocked, you know, can't stand these guys, well that's the story of the good Taliban, that's the sort of impact the story of the good Samaritan would have had because as Sam said there was no such thing as a good Samaritan in the eyes of the Jewish people, the only good Samaritan was a dead Samaritan, so that's the irony of even calling this story the good Samaritan, well that's how it is with mercy and grace, they can break all the rules, they do break all the rules, they take risks, the Samaritan stopped exposing his own vulnerability in doing so, he used his own precious first aid gear, he paid the tariff at the Samaritan inn, this guy was a serious giver of mercy and expected nothing in return, guys this story among other things illustrates the power of one, the amazing power of one, the problems that you and I face in the world or even among our friends, even in this church and we as pastoral ministers get to experience a lot of problems that they can appear to be overwhelming and at times they are overwhelming, the Jericho road carries a lot of people, there's a lot of people lying wounded and bleeding on the Jericho road, where do you start? Andy Stanley the Minister of North Point Church in America says, well you start by doing for one what you'd like to do for everyone, start somewhere and ironic I think it's something really really crazy this morning Sam used the same quote which I'd also plan to use, we had a guy in the congregation from Andy Stanley's church, can you believe that? Nice one Sam, very good and the guy was really stoked, comes from North Point Church passing through, wow, so do for one, do for one what you'd like to do for everyone and that sort of brings the whole thing into perspective, start somewhere, write some lines in the never ending story this week, I know so many of you do, you do it in a way that's so natural, you're not even aware you're doing it, it's kind of people you are, but if this stuff is new for you, if you're more a taker of mercy or a talker of mercy and you need to become a giver of mercy, do for one what you'd like to do for everyone, here's the final thing I want to share tonight guys, what do we have here in this story, what's the essential theme of this story? Well it's a rescue, a rescue take place, takes place in this story, that's pretty much what happens, a rescue, you know, you see someone got saved in this story and we do our best work of saving and rescuing once we have been saved and rescued by the ultimate good Samaritan in that sense, Jesus Christ, because he's the one who lay bleeding for us, he's the one who died for us, he's the one through whom we have access to the Father as Sam was mentioning earlier, we do our best work of saving and rescuing once we've experienced the ultimate rescue, let me read a passage from Colossians chapter 1 verse 13, look at this, he God has rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe, brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear son by whom we are set free, that is our sins are forgiven, he rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us safe into the kingdom of his dear son, guys that's what we're talking about tonight, a rescue has taken place because of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, do you know that? Have you experienced that rescue as yet? Have you experienced the loving arms of Jesus Christ around you figuratively, spiritually? Have you been rescued by the one through whom we do our best work of rescue? Because you've got to have been rescued to understand what it's like to be bleeding and dying, you've got to have been rescued to know what it's like to suffer, you've got to have been taken into the arms of Jesus spiritually to know what it's like to be facing a Christless eternity, have you been rescued by Jesus Christ tonight? You'll do some of your best work as a rescuer, as a good Samaritan once you've experienced his saving healing touch in your life.