The Compassionate Samaritan

Main idea:

All people are sinners by nature and incapable of keeping the Law perfectly, making the attainment of salvation through human effort impossible. Eternal life is God’s gift to those who recognize their inability to save themselves and are driven to Him desperate for the grace that is available in Christ through faith. Then, once in Christ, His disciples are called to pursue holiness. This demand includes loving one’s neighbor with sacrificial Christ-like love.

Outline:

1) The Query: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”


2) The Quiz: What does the Law say?


3) The Disqualifying Qualification: Perfection


4) The Quest: Self-justification


5) The Quandary: A deficient understanding of love


6) The Question Corrected: How can I be a neighbor to whoever I encounter?





Questions for further contemplation and application after the message:

1) The basis of the world’s innumerable false religions is the belief that man can please God and attain salvation through good works. What does this deadly idea reveal about the world’s view of God?

How does the Bible say that a person can gain eternal life? Support your answer with appropriate Scripture references.


2) How was Jesus’s instruction to the lawyer to “DO this” (v.28) ultimately a repudiation of the idea of salvation by works?


3) The story of the compassionate Samaritan is first and foremost salvific, but has clear ethical implications for disciples of Jesus as well with respect to love for one’s neighbor. Who does the story indicate is the disciple’s “neighbor?”

One Bible commentator has observed from this story that the essence of being a neighbor is having the sensitivity to see a need and then acting to meet it. Do you agree? What would you add to his definition?


4) How is the Samaritan a model for disciples with respect to their love of others?


5) Are disciples better able to love others, including even unbelievers, sacrificially? Why?




Select helpful resources:
Carson, D.A. Matthew Vol. 1 (Ch 1 – 12), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995.
Lenski, R.C.H. The Interpretation of ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL. Germany: The Wartburg Press, 1943.
MacArthur, John F. Matthew 1 – 7. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1985.
Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to Matthew. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992.
Toussant, Stanley. Behold the King – A Study of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1980.
Turner, David L. Matthew. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008.