GO AND DO LIKEWISE

GO AND DO LIKEWISE…

Luke 10:25-37

Jesus said ‘…he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do’… (John 14:12).

They that know their God shall be strong and they shall do (carry out) great exploits (Dan. 11:32).

A lawyer (an expert in religious law) tested the Lord, by asking Him for the requirements for eternal life. This man already had his own pre-conceived mind-set/opinion, but he decided to check out what Jesus would say. Many times, we ask God questions that we already have customized answers for…

Jesus replied him, ‘What is written in the law of Moses?’ ‘How do you read/understand it?’
Do you understand what you are reading? – Acts 8:30; 2 Cor. 3:15.

The man recited the laws of Moses, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind…and your neighbour as yourself’.
Having heard this, Jesus encouraged him to live according to the Word (just as he had recited), therein lies eternal life.
However, this man, wanting to justify himself before God, asked Jesus, ‘Who is my neighbour?’
This is exactly what we do. We try to appear blameless before God. We try to define the scope of God’s will, purpose and assignment for our lives. We try to determine people who fall within the category of our ‘neighbour’. We try to pre-determine who we will love.
Someone is asking the same question today, ‘Who is my neighbour?’

Jesus took this discourse to another realm by telling the lawyer a story!
This was about a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and got waylaid by thieves who stripped him of all his belongings, wounded him and left him half dead…
The man in question, who went from Jerusalem to Jericho is a typical Christian or prospect, who still shuttles between the light and darkness…
The thieves here, represent the devil, whose major pre-occupation is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).

But for God, who sent His only begotten Son to take away the sin of the world, through death by shedding His precious blood on the Cross of Calvary, we had been left for the dead…

Now by chance, a priest showed up on the scene…But when he saw the half-dead man, he passed by on the other side of the road.

Thereafter, a Levite came along, when he got to the place, he moved closer and looked, and decided to move on, crossing to the other side of the road.

Many of us are like the priest and the Levite, we meet spiritually ‘half-dead’ people on a daily basis in our workplace, institution of learning, group, within the neighbourhood, in the same community, on air (while we are travelling), in the bus/car, etc.

We decide to ignore their spiritually appalling conditions, do business with them, interact with them, and move on, leaving them for the dead… (within the claws of eternal damnation and doom).

Chances and opportunities present themselves before us regularly, but do we leverage on these, to advance the Kingdom of God?
Time and chance happen to them all…Eccl. 9:11

Furthermore, a Samaritan, who was embarking on a journey, came along, when he saw the half-dead man, he had compassion on him.
He went to him, bandaged his wounds, rubbed oil on his body, gave him wine, and set him on his own donkey, took him to the inn (hospital) and took care of him. The man got much better, but the Samaritan didn’t stop there.
On the next day, when he saw that the man had regained his consciousness, he decided to proceed on his journey.
However, he gave two denarii to the inn keeper, and said to him ‘Take care of him, whatever more expense you incur, I will repay you when I return…’

The good Samaritan is a type and shadow of our Lord, Jesus Christ…He alone can deliver from the power and consequence of sin. He came to us, bandaged our wounds, anointed us with oil, gave us the wine of new life, carried us on His divine wings, took us to the place of grace, the secret place of the Most High and took care of us…

Just as He gave the innkeeper money to take care of the wounded, He has called us and given us resources, as His servants, to minister to the needs (spiritual, economic, social, psychological, medical, etc) of people…
We must use our God-given resources (life, health, money, materials, time, etc) to reach out to people in the love of God.

Please, take note of what He said ‘Take care of him, whatever more expense you incur, I will repay you when I return…’

Jesus finally told the lawyer: ‘Go and do likewise’.

 PASTOR NATHANIEL SADELA

        Resident  Pastor

Kindly like our facebook page and follow our post at www.facebook.com/gacikeja and tweets at www.twitter.com/gacikeja.