The sermon 'Our Neighbor Defined & Illustrated' by Peter Allison explores the biblical concept of who our neighbor is through the lens of Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. It begins with a lawyer's question to Jesus about inheriting eternal life. Jesus redirects the question back to the lawyer, who recites the commandments to love God and neighbor. Jesus affirms the answer but highlights the impossibility of perfect law-keeping for salvation, emphasizing the necessity of Christ's obedience. The parable illustrates that a true neighbor is defined by actions of mercy, not proximity or heritage. The Good Samaritan, despite cultural enmity, aids a wounded man, contrasting with the apathetic priest and Levite. The sermon emphasizes that love, as fulfillment of the law, involves active compassion and mercy, extending even to enemies. It challenges listeners to embody this love, reflecting Christ's perfect obedience, which alone secures salvation for believers.

I would like to begin at verse 25. And behold a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him, What is written in the law? What is your reading of it? So he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.

And he said to him, You have answered rightly, do this, and you will live. But he wanting to justify himself said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor? Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a certain priest came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day when he departed he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, Take care of him and whatever more you spend when I come again I will repay you. So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among thieves. And he said, He who showed mercy on him.

Then Jesus said to him, Go and do likewise. May rivers of water run from our eyes when men do not keep His statutes. Almighty Heavenly Father, Thank you for preserving your word. Thank you for applying it to us by your Holy Spirit. We ask, Lord, that your truth and the riches of your grace might be brought to us this morning.

We pray that you would give to us faith that we might not only understand these things that are spiritually discerned, but also do them. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, Facebook is a place where it seems like a lot of theological discussions happen. And what would you say if somebody Asked a Facebook crowd, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And someone answered back, as somebody seems always instantly ready to do, well you should keep the law.

You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself. I see a lot of people looking horrified. Yes, we would probably be horrified That someone would give an answer like that But Jesus is asked this same very same question By Remember that rich young ruler that's recorded in Luke 18 and the other Gospels as well. And Jesus says to him, well you know the commandments. Don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, don't bear false witness.

Honor your father and mother. That's what Jesus told him. Somebody came to Jesus and asked, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Remember that's what Jesus told Nicodemus that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Somebody comes to Him and says, teacher, What must I do to have this everlasting life?" And Jesus says, keep the law.

That was his answer. In two occasions, Two different occasions, Jesus gave that same answer. Now, this question though was not an innocent question. It was not an innocent question. It was an ungodly question.

The lawyer wanted to make Christ look foolish. He wanted to discredit Him in front of this crowd. He wanted to show the crowd that Jesus made mistakes. He wanted to get Jesus to say something that would be disagreeable to the crowd. So this lawyer, This is somebody who is an expert in the law of God.

Somebody who is trained in the Scriptures. These were, another word would be a scribe, but sometimes they're called lawyers in the Bible. They're not people who represent other people in civil courts. These were people, these were church people. People who were experts in the Word of God.

And so This expert in the Word of God comes to Jesus. He appears. It's not so much that he stood up from a seating position, but it's that he appears. He appears for a purpose, for a function. He appears testing Jesus.

That word for testing is the word for temptation to tempt Jesus. It's used only three other times in the New Testament. Those three other times are the two times that it's recorded in scripture, Christ's temptation by Satan is recorded in scripture. And Jesus answers Satan, saying, quoting from Deuteronomy, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And the other place that it's used is when Paul exhorts the Corinthian church not to tempt the Lord as their fathers did in the wilderness and were destroyed by serpents." That's the word that Luke uses to describe what this lawyer was doing.

He was doing what God says you shall not do, which is tempting him, seeking to put him to the test, to see if he can get him to fail. See, that's a wrong purpose. He was, this was a proud man who thought well of himself, who thought that here I am, I'm an expert in these matters. And he sought out, he attempted to make Jesus look foolish. This lawyer tried, he had a bad motive in asking this question.

And Jesus doesn't answer this question. Jesus responds to this ungodly question by not answering it. Because not all questions should be answered or must be answered. That's something to remember. Not all questions should be answered, nor must they be answered.

Jesus doesn't answer this question, He deflects it. So we have to first decide or determine whether a questioner has lawful authority to ask the question, or whether we're accountable to the one asking the question, such as maybe employers or employees who might be accountable and need to answer their questions, or parents and children, or maybe in a court of law where there are duties to answer questions. And there is authority to hold us accountable. But not everybody has that authority. This lawyer here had no authority in that sense to make Jesus answer this question or to require Jesus to answer the question.

Another kind of ungodly question might be a question that assumes something that isn't true. Not a question that we have to answer because there's a lie implicitly assumed in the question. Jesus doesn't answer those kinds of questions directly. What is the intent of the question? Is the intent to embarrass, to mock, to belittle?

Is the intent to trip somebody up, to make them look foolish? That's not a question that needs to be answered. And so Jesus has no obligation to answer this question, and he doesn't answer it. He responds with another question. And he very deftly turns the tables.

Jesus responds with the question, well, well sir, how do you read the law? You're the expert, in other words, behind that question is the assumption you are an expert in the law. How do you read the law? What do you make of it? What's your opinion in this matter?

See Jesus appeals to his pride a bit here and he offers this proud lawyer a chance to show off his knowledge to the crowd that is gathered around him. And he very cleanly falls into Jesus' counter trap and answers his own question. And he answers the question when Jesus asks him, well, what is written in the law? What is your reading of it? What is your opinion?

And he says very confidently, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus simply says, you're right. You're right. You have done well, he says. You have answered rightly. You have correctly summarized the law of God.

And so Jesus turns the tables from the one being examined to the one doing the examination and the evaluation. It's so cleanly done the lawyer doesn't realize that until it's too late. That he's the one who's looking a bit foolish for answering his own question, the question he asked. Since he's answered his own question, it's now obvious he wasn't asking the question to learn. He was asking the question for some other motive.

And so in order to redeem himself in the eyes of those who are around him, He asks another question. As if to say, well, this sounds very simple on the surface. You know, I've given you this answer that is so good that even Jesus says it's a right answer. But It's really not so simple because, well, this neighbor thing. Defining neighbor is a bit complicated.

Who is a neighbor? And he thought that in asking that question, he could show that, well, this is really a more nuanced thing than you're making it out to be. This is really more complicated than it seems on the surface. And so I really had a real good reason for asking that question. Because who is your neighbor?

Just who is your neighbor? Have you thought about who is your neighbor? Have you tried to define who is your neighbor? It is difficult to do. Is it the person that lives next to you?

Is it the person that lives in the same city? Well, what about the person that lives far, far away from you? Is that your neighbor? What about the people that are trying to shoot you? Are they your neighbor?

So if you define it in terms of proximity, well, it's the person that you're next to, then What about the people that are trying to shoot you? Are they your neighbor? So if you define it in terms of proximity, well, it's the person that you're next to, then what about the people that are next to you, but they're trying to hurt you? You see, there's all sorts of complexities, difficulties, in defining who our neighbor is. But Jesus proceeds to show how simple this concept really is.

But before we look at Jesus' answer showing how simple this concept of neighbor really is, let's go back and look a minute at this question, this surprising question or the surprising answer, Jesus' surprising answer to the question, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says that His answer, saying to keep the law, was the right answer. See, when that man, that lawyer, recites loving God and loving one's neighbor as the way to be saved, he is summarizing the law of God. He did have an academically correct grasp of God's Word. Because all of God's commandments are summed up in the great commandment that he gave, which Jesus called the great commandment.

The first and great commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like unto it, Jesus said, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus himself called these two commandments, the first and great commandment, and said that on this commandment, that this lawyer accurately recited, on that commandment hangs all the law and the prophets. In other words, all of the scripture hangs on these two. What does it mean to hang on them?

It means that these two things accurately summarize all of the scriptures. And Jesus says that it was correct. That was how to inherit eternal life. Jesus simply adds, do it, do it and you will live. Jesus taught this lawyer, Jesus agreed with this lawyer that keeping the law would bring eternal life.

Paul repeats the same principle in Romans that those who actually and in fact keep the law are justified. He says in Romans 2, For there is no respecter of persons with God, for as many as have sinned without the law, perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. For not The hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. See, that's the significance of obeying the law of God. The doers, Jesus says and Paul says, the doers of the law will be justified.

Love is defined as obedience to the law of God. To love God is to keep His commandments. To love our neighbor is to keep God's commandments related to our neighbor. Respect for his life, respect for his health, respect for his property, respect for his chastity, respect for his good name. If you love me, You will keep my commandments, Jesus said in John 14.

In Romans 13, Paul wrote that love is fulfilling the law. Oh, no man anything but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not covet, if there is any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So when this Pharisee is saying that the law is summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor, that is what the Bible teaches, that He was correct.

The Apostle John said the same thing. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commands are not grievous." And Jesus also said that keeping His commands is necessary to abiding in His love. If you would keep my commandments, you abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Love is defined, since love is defined as obedience to the law of God, the lawyer is saying, and Christ has agreed, that we are saved by keeping the law.

If Jesus said it, then it must be true. And it is true that we are saved through obedience. It's just not our obedience. It's Christ's obedience of the law. It's Christ's obedience of the law.

It's Christ's obedience of the law. Without Christ's obedience of the law, We could not be saved. Shortly before he died in 1937, Dr. Gressen Machen, who was one of the giants in the fight against liberalism in the first few decades of the 20th century, sent a final telegram. He died in the hospital I was born in, in Bismarck, North Dakota, in January 1, 1937.

He sent a telegram a few days before he died to his friend, Professor Murray, with these words, quote, I am so thankful for the act of obedience of Christ, no hope without it, unquote. You see, if Christ just paid our sins, He paid the penalty for our breaking the law. If He paid the penalty for our sins, if He died in our place and bore the wrath of God, but His perfect righteousness was not, His perfect obedience of the law of God was not imputed to us. We could not enter heaven because as we confessed in our faith earlier today, that without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Without holiness, without perfect righteousness, no one will see the Lord.

We cannot enter into heaven. Jesus said, Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will in no way enter the Kingdom of God. Because to see God requires perfect righteousness, perfect obedience to the law of God. And simply having all of our sins forgiven and our debt paid does nothing to establish a record of perfect obedience. We are simply back where Adam was in the Garden of Eden when he was created perfect.

We need holiness, perfect righteousness to see God and without it there is no hope. Without it Paul told the Hebrews or the writer of the Hebrews said, no one can see the Lord. It is through Christ's obedience to the law and his obedience alone. Because we can't obey it. We can't.

Adam didn't. He was able to, but he didn't. And we, as descendants of Adam, are born in sin, we are conceived in iniquity. We go astray from the womb and even as Christians, even as those for whom Christ died, we are still not yet fully able not to sin or able to keep the law perfectly. And so brothers and sisters Christ's words here are very true.

It is in Christ's righteousness that is our hope of salvation. It's in His obedience to the law. And we can't separate, as I have done, you can't separate His act of obedience, keeping the law, and His passive obedience, as it's called, in going to the cross. We can distinguish them, but the two are inseparable. They go together.

They comprise Christ's obedience, His perfect obedience to the law of God and His perfect righteousness. And So Jesus then could say to this lawyer when he quoted the law, you have said rightly, do it and you will live. The problem is none of us can do it. None of us can do it. None of us could ever keep that standard.

But daily we sin in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds. But what Jesus said was absolutely true. If that lawyer could have kept the law, he could be righteous before God. The problem is, the universal problem is, we can't. We simply cannot do it.

And no man is able to do it. Except the man, Christ Jesus. Jesus was obligated to tell this man the good news that Christ has kept the law for him. Christ, God has no obligation to reveal that to us or to this lawyer. And if he has revealed it to us, if he has shown to us his righteousness, if he has revealed the gospel, that's of his grace, that's of his goodness.

That He has brought us to trust in His righteousness, that He has declared to us this good news, that all those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ do have everlasting life. That's His grace. And if it's His grace, that means it's not merited. It means Jesus is not in any way obligated to reveal that. The fact that he has chosen to do so is because of his great love for us.

He so loved the world that he has sent his only begotten son and that he has revealed this message of salvation through Christ and through Christ's obedience to the law in our place, just as He has died in our place. We are, brothers and sisters, saved by Christ's obedience to the law of God. Now, how does Jesus answer this difficult question of who our neighbor is? Jesus tells a story. It may have been an actual account.

It may have been an account of the news of the day. It may have been a story that he made up to illustrate the point. But whatever the situation, whether it was a true story, a recent event in Jesus' day, or a story that He made up to illustrate a point, it is one of the most widely known stories in all of the stories and parables that Jesus told. Everybody knows this story. We even have the laws about helping other people on the road today are called Good Samaritan laws.

Jesus tells the story of a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. This is a road probably around 14-15 miles long, somewhere about there. It goes down. It descends over 3500 feet in that short time. If you do the math roughly, that's about a 5% slope, whether you're down or up, depending on which direction you're going Jerusalem was up Jericho is down by the Jordan River Valley in it in that five percent slope just by way of comparison some of the steepest slopes on any U.S.

Interstate are no more than 6%, maybe 7%. This is averaging 5% over that whole road, so some places may have been much steeper than that. There was just a very steep hill. It goes through a desert, and it goes through a barren land. And this was a road that was plagued by thieves and robbers and criminals.

Because it was a road in a barren land. It was easy to prey on people traveling on it. It was considered a very dangerous road. So This man is traveling down this road, doesn't say who, but we might assume it's a Jew, because he's coming from Jerusalem to Jericho. And he fell among thieves, who beat him up, who stripped him of his clothing and probably every other thing of value that he was carrying and wounded him.

And they left him. The Bible says, half-dead. Half-dead. You know, people aren't either living or you're dead. Half-dead here, he's near death.

He's having difficulty. He can't help himself. He can't get up and walk out, walk away. He can't get up and finish his trip. He's wounded.

He's hurting. And if nobody helps him, he probably would die there by the side of the road. But it happens by chance, Jesus said, by chance. Yes, there are things that happen by chance. That's not saying that God doesn't control things that happen by chance.

He does. What it is saying is that there are things that happen that we don't plan, that we have no control over. That's called by chance. So it is proper to speak of things happening by chance. Jesus says this happened by chance.

It was a chance event. It means nobody was planning it, but God was planning it. God ordained for this to happen, but to us, it was unplanned. And so Jesus describes it as a chance event. A certain priest comes down this road and sees this person wounded, bleeding, naked, near death, and he passes by on the other side.

He probably didn't want to be troubled, made unclean. Then likewise, a Levite, He arrived at that place and he came and he looked. And he passed by the other side. It wasn't a case where he went by and didn't see the person. He came, Jesus said, and he looked.

He assessed that situation and he passed by the other side of the road. You know, it's like, this is like people seeing poverty, seeing need, and coming back and doing a presentation on the causes of poverty, or organizing a rally where you sing songs and pray about the victims, or organizing a demonstration to march on the Capitol for people to do something about those that are poor. They do nothing to bring help to those who need it. But then comes by a Samaritan. A Samaritan.

And he had compassion on him when he saw him. Now, Samaritans, you're aware of this enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews. And it is a long-standing historical fact. You remember when the kingdom was divided after Solomon in the days of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, the northern kingdom fell much more rapidly into apostasy. They didn't have one good king.

And so God judged the northern kingdom by the Assyrians who came in and destroyed the land. And they carried off all the northern 10 tribes. And they repopulated the land of Samaria. That was called Samaria because the capital was in Samaria. So they repopulated the land that became Samaria with pagans from Babylon, from Cutha, from Ava, from Hamath, from Sevarvain.

They just took all the other people that they had taken out of their countries and put them in where the northern tribes were, and they took the northern tribes and dispersed them throughout all the other countries. In other words, they're totally mixing these people up to prevent any form of rebellion or to completely destroy these nations so they never exist again. And you remember the story how these pagans came into the land of Canaan that God had promised to give to Abraham and They are worshiping it according to their pagan traditions and God sends these lions among them that begin to destroy them and so they they cry out to the king that, well, we don't know how to worship the god of this land and we're getting killed by these lions. And so the Assyrians sent some Jewish priests, Levites, back to these people to teach them how to worship God. But they didn't turn to the Lord and follow him holy.

They simply added to their pagan worship the sacrifices and worship that God had required. And so right from the beginning, the people who lived in Samaria, their worship was corrupted. It was this mixture of the sacrifices and worship that God commanded with the pagan worship. It was corrupted worship. And then when God judged the southern tribe, and they were carried away into exile in Babylon, but God restored them after 70 years, and they came back under Ezra.

And the wall of Jerusalem which had been destroyed in the temple which had been destroyed were rebuilt but but it but it was done with great conflict with the Samaritans. Remember, under the decree of Darius, that was inspired by Haman, Haman the Agagite. Remember he had the plan to destroy all the Jews and using the seal of the king he passed a law. He enacted a law that the people of the land could destroy the Jews. And apparently under that edict the wall that had been built under Ezra was torn down.

And Nehemiah, you remember, is sad to learn that the wall was still in a state of ruin. And so he goes back to rebuild the wall and and he faced stiff opposition again from the Samaritans We read about that in Nehemiah 4 how they they're unhappy They're envious about this wall that is getting rebuilt the wall that they had destroyed earlier, a few years earlier, and it's now getting rebuilt again. And so, Sanballet heard that they were rebuilding the wall and he mocks the Jews and he spoke with his brethren and the army of Samaria, and he said, what are these feeble Jews doing? Why, if they fortify themselves, will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day?

If a fox jumps up on the wall, it will knock it down. And so they were discouraging them, they were hindering them, they were mocking them. So this is back long before the time of Christ. And so this is the source, and this is a long-standing entity and war between these Samaritans and the Jews, such that they generally didn't go into each other's countries. They generally regarded each other as enemies.

And you remember the Samaritan woman at the well was surprised that Jesus, a Jew, would be there in their land because they typically would have gone around the land and also that she would even talk to him. But of course that's where Jesus confirmed that their worship was corrupted. He said salvation is of the Jews, he told her, you worship what you don't know, we worship what we do know. And so this person and this Samaritan who has been taught from youth, is ingrained in their culture to hate Jews, to regard them as their enemies, he has compassion on this wounded Jew who is lying destitute, helpless, naked, stripped bare on the side of the road. And where the others all went away, passed around on the other side of the road, This Samaritan goes to him.

He goes to him. But not to inflict more injury on him. He goes to him. He starts revising his schedule here right now. And he treats his injuries with oil and wine to disinfect and to heal them.

And then he doesn't just say, okay, here's a little bottle of wine, here's a little oil, I've got to be going. He puts him on his own animal. So he probably now starts walking and he carries this wounded person to an innkeeper. And he spends the night there with this wounded person, caring for him, bandaging up his wounds, all night long. And then in the next morning, before he departs, he takes two coins, two denarii, and he gives them to the innkeeper to care for him.

Now a denarius is a day's wages. So if we take the median income of today, that's $300. So he probably gave him $600 or so. Maybe a little more. $600 he just gave to this innkeeper to care for him.

And even more than that, he committed to saying if it costs more, if it takes longer for him to get better. And I don't know exactly how long two denarius would care for this person, but Some have said about 24 days maybe. If a denarius is at 12th of a day's upkeep, then it would be 24 days that possibly could care for this person. He says, if it's longer than that, then when I come by again, I will pay you the difference. So please do whatever you need to, to care for this person.

That's going out of your way a lot. That's being inconvenienced a lot. That's sacrificing a lot. Two days wages and the promise of more. Also giving up a day and a night, giving up a day of your time and a night to care for this person who in all likelihood hated him.

And then Jesus simply asked the question, now who's the neighbor? Of the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan, who is the neighbor? And the lawyer is forced to admit that it's the one who showed him mercy. That was the neighbor. And you see how Jesus very cleanly and deftly changed who is my neighbor from a classification of people, a class of people, to being defined by actions.

He turned this complex question into a simple task of who shows mercy and who doesn't. Neighbors are those who show mercy to strangers. So when we are commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves, we are to love those who love us, yes, but we are also commanded to love our enemy, to bless those who persecute us, to pray for them. Exodus said, if you meet your enemy's ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it.

You shall help him to lift it up." That was the law out of Exodus, and this lawyer knew that law. He was, after all, an expert. And so he recognized the neighbor is the one who shows mercy. Proverbs 25 says, If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

This, This is our neighbor. You see, to love our neighbor is to show the same kind of kindness that we would show to ourselves and to our family. It's to show it to those who are outside of our family. We all love ourselves and we love our family and we have no hesitation showing this kind of kindness, this kind of mercy to those who are our family. But what about those who are outside of our family?

That's a different story, isn't it? That's the example that Jesus holds up to us and He says to this lawyer, go and do likewise. Go and do likewise. You see, loving our neighbors and being a Christian is more than having correct doctrine and theological practice. Yes, we must have those things, but if we're not showing this kind of love to our neighbor, then we're missing the first and the great commandment.

Pure and undefiled religion is more than correct doctrine and practice. It is visiting widows and orphans in their distress. John said, let us not love in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We can't excuse ourselves for not helping people in need because most people asking for help are scammers. Most people that come to the church asking for help are scammers.

We've proven that. In fact, even long-term scammers, we have had the same person come and try to scam us seven years or more apart. And of course, yes, It's a long story, I won't tell it. And these are elaborate scams, elaborate scams. They're not always easy to uncover.

But that's not an excuse. It's not an excuse for not helping those who are in need. See in light of what the Samaritans are, were enemies of the Jews, This is a call to love our enemy. Now this is not a call to abandon all stereotypes and abandon all condemnation of error or heresy. No.

That is still, we are still called to that. This is a call to add to that. A call to be ready to help those in affliction. What are you doing? What are we doing to help those who are in need like this Samaritan?

That's Jesus' call. That was Jesus' call to the lawyer, go and do likewise. That's His call to us as well. Pure and undefiled religion, before God and the Father, is visiting widows and orphans in their distress. Let us not love in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

Almighty Heavenly Father, who among us can say that we have done this, that we have loved in deed and in truth, that we have been the Samaritan showing mercy to those in trouble even at risk to our own safety at inconvenience to our own schedule and finances so father we ask your forgiveness where we have failed. We ask for your mercy and we ask that we might be like this Samaritan that you have called us to emulate. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.