Sermon: Go and Do Likewise
Agape is Kind
#1740A
Bill Onisick
Given 23-Dec-23; 37 minutes
description: Many of us have squandered opportunities to help others in need, not actively obeying God's laws which are inextricably linked to love. Our Lord and Savior, by sacrificing His life for ours, placed the bar higher by applying it to our enemies. Without the gift of God's Holy Spirit, it is impossible to understand the kind of love which Christ commanded of His disciples, blessed with eyes to see and ears to ear. When the lawyer responded to Jesus about the most important law (loving God intensely and our neighbor as ourselves), the understanding was that his agape must be continuous rather than sporadic. The anecdote about the Good Samaritan uncovered the deficit of love in the inquisitive lawyer, but it could have demonstrated the same lack of love we may currently have. It would be well for all of us to understand the plight of the victim on the side of the road, which describes all of us before our calling. As Christ demonstrated His love to us while we were enemies, clueless about His plan for us, we must extend mercy, kindness, and compassion to those who are just as clueless as we were before our calling.
transcript:
I wonder, how often do we all pass by the opportunity to help someone in need? It might be just a kind word or it could be something much more significant, someone that is really in need of our help. How often do we pass that opportunity by? I cringe to even think about how many times in my life I have missed an opportunity to extend help, lovingkindness to someone in need. I do not do it on purpose, per se. I am just usually a bit busy, a bit distracted with whatever that task at hand might be, whatever it might be.
Now, I could blame my work; it is pretty consuming to be fair. I could blame my ADHD, which is always kind of parallel processing about 20 different thoughts in any second in time. Or I could blame this instantaneous, always-on Information Age with technology and apps that are literally designed to suck every ounce of free time and thought that we might have away from us. But regardless of what excuse I may want to use, the reality is I often fall short to extend lovingkindness to those in need.
This week I was returning from the airport after a two-day business trip and I had about 30 minutes before my next meeting that I had to take from home. And so I stopped by the grocery store to pick up some flowers for my wife and as I pulled out of the shopping center, I noticed a woman was holding up a sign, "Lost my job. Please help." Now, I was in the other lane of traffic pulling out of the parking lot so I was a little bit separated from her. Cars were moving ahead and behind and so I thought, well, I just better keep going. And as I looked behind, I saw something I missed when I originally saw her. It was that she had a young child standing right behind her, outside, and it was pretty cold outside. But I needed to get home, I thought. I had this meeting and I was anxious to see my wife, so I kept going. Besides, I thought, I do not have any cash. I never carry cash. I have not carried cash for years. So what could I do? What could I offer her anyway? So I continued driving home.
But it hit me hard. I could make lots of excuses. I could come up with all kinds of justifications. But the B.L.O.T. (the bottom line on top), was I had sinned. I had missed an opportunity God had given me to show some kindness to someone in need.
Now, we are going to tie nicely into Doctor Maas' sermon from last week, "Strategies for Escaping Babylon, Part Six." And as the good doctor explained, there is a symbiotic relationship between God's law and His agape love. There is no conflict there. In I John 4:8 and 16 it is repeated very simply and neatly. God is agape. And we should clarify, of course, that that Greek noun agape, the verb form agapeo, used over 250 times, mind you, in the New Testament, combines thought, motive, and action. Right? Agape is not just one of those, it is all three at the same time, ultimately leading to action in the best interest for that person or that being and in the best interest of God's plan and purpose.
Turn with me to Romans 13 where we are going to begin. As Dr. Maas pointed out last week, there is no conflict between agape and law. God's commandments describe His way of life. And we find innumerable scriptures that show law and agape are truly linked, they are linked together. John 14:21 or 15:10 or I John 5:3; they are all somewhat similar. I will read a couple of them here. "He who has and keeps My commandments is he who agapeos Me." "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My agape." "For this is the agape of God, that we keep His commandments." There is no conflict. They are together, they are inextricably linked.
Romans 13:9-10 For the commandments, "You shall not commit an adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love [agape] does no harm to a neighbor; therefore [agape] is the fulfillment of the law.
If we are walking and thinking in agape, we cannot possibly do anything bad or injurious to our neighbor. It is that simple. That is how all of those are summed up into agape. God's agape Spirit is always doing His commandments because His commandments are always in the best interest of everyone.
Now, let us go all the way back to Leviticus 19 as we examine the original commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. And let us take note that Leviticus 19:18 and 34 and Romans 13:9 are just three of the 11 times in the New King James that we are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. We can find the others. (You could jot these down. We are not going to go to them. Matthew 5:43; 19:19; 22:39; Mark 12:31 and 33; Luke 10:27; Galatians 5:14; and James 2:8. We might end up hitting that one if we have time at the end.)
Leviticus 19:18 "You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."
Leviticus 19:34-35 "The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. You shall do no injustice in judgment, in measurement of length, weight, or volume."
Now, I find it interesting that right after this original commandment to love our neighbor, we find the command to do no injustice or unrighteousness in our judgment. Hold on to that thought. So we can build on these 11 outright commands to love our neighbor with many other scriptures that say something very similar. They capture the same thought of God's agape Spirit. In John 13:34 Jesus tells us, "A new commandment I give to you, that you [agapeo] one another; as I have [agape] you." And two chapters later in John 15:12 and 13, Jesus repeats actually in a new commandment to love as He loves. But then He adds to it, "Greater love [greater agape] has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends."
I John 2 clarifies this is not really a new commandment. I mean, we know this. We just read it back in Leviticus. How could it be a new commandment to love our neighbor? What Jesus is telling us here is He is building on the old commandment and He is actually starting to show us the spirit of that law of loving our neighbor. Clyde Finklea explains in his 2017 CGG Weekly entitled "Overcoming Troubled Hearts," Jesus actually here is explaining a new way to fulfill the letter and spirit of the law to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus commands that we give out agape just as He agapeos us by laying down His life when we did not deserve it.
This is the key that underlines agape love; very different than our English love. Right? Our English love is typically given to somebody who deserves it. Somebody who did something nice for us. Agape is not based off of emotion, it is not based off of who deserves to get it. It is given because that is God's Spirit. God's Spirit of agape gives love to people who do not deserve it. Think about it. How would we ever even come into the knowledge of the truth if He did not give His agape Spirit to us when we were sinners when we did not deserve it? We would not, brethren.
Please turn to Luke 6 and we are going to find that Jesus here is speaking to a select few who can hear His words.
Luke 6:27 "But I say to you who hear [get that, "I say to you who hear," this is not to everyone, this is to those who hear]: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."
Luke 6:35-36 "But love [agape] your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful."
So to become like God, we are told here we must walk in His agape Spirit and be kind to everyone, even to those that are unthankful, to those who are evil and cruel to us. He adds in verse 36 we must be merciful just as God is merciful. Agape is not given based on something earned or deserved. God's lovingkindness and mercy always go hand in hand, brethren.
We have looked many times at the 16 actions Paul uses in I Corinthians 13 to describe God's very nature, His agape Spirit, but we skipped one along the way. You probably have not noticed. I certainly have, and I skipped it because I thought it is just too simple. It is too obvious. But in I Corinthians 13:4 it states, "Agape is kind."
Agape is kind. Kind is such a simple word. I was always like, "(*shrug) Of course, we are supposed to be kind." I mean, are we not kind? But in the Old Testament we often see mercy and lovingkindness used interchangeably for the underlying Hebrew word, chesed. We can see this in Hosea 6:6, "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice." Mercy is showing acts of lovingkindness. Think about it. Mercy can be given for someone by withholding a deserving punishment. Mercy can be given as an act towards someone who is disadvantaged, or suffering, or in need. It is an act of kindness. God's grace is indeed His merciful, unmerited act of lovingkindness. Luke 6:35-36 makes it clear God's agape Spirit is both kind and merciful.
Now, let us lunge forward in Luke just a bit if we can, over to chapter 10. We are going to actually look at a very common, one of the most common actually, stories in the entire Bible. Pretty much everybody that has any sort of Christian claim will know this story of the Good Samaritan, but we are going to look at it today from a slightly different point of view. Some of the same points we have looked at before, but there is a couple of things that are hidden in here that I found really interesting in this study. Let us look starting in verse 21 of Luke 10 because this is going to set the context for this scripture.
Luke 10:21 In that hour, Jesus rejoiced [I want us to get this. It is not very often when Jesus was here on earth where we hear that He actually rejoices.] in the Spirit and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight."
In Luke 10:21-24 (we are not going to read all of this) Jesus is rejoicing and He is really excited about something. He thanks God the Father for revealing to spiritual babes the things that had been hidden from the wise and prudent. (We could add a tie in to James' message right here.) They are hidden from those who are self-confident and not God-confident.
Note in verse 23 He turns to His disciples privately. So this is a message just for the end time church here. "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see" and the ears which hear them. He is telling us, remember we just read this in Luke 6, "But I say to those who hear," not everyone, only to those who hear, we are to agape our enemies. And Jesus tells us repeatedly, those who are well have no need of a physician. We could see this in Matthew 9:12-13. But He goes on to say, "Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy. . . for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
I believe Jesus is using a little sarcasm here as He is talking to the Pharisees in saying He did not come to save the righteous, He came to save the sinners. He is saying the self-righteous are not even aware enough that they are sick. I cannot even help them. They do not even know they have an evil heart. You are blessed, we are blessed, because we have eyes to see, ears to hear the fact that we have an evil heart that by nature, just like water flows downhill, we do have a tendency to be a bit too self-confident and a little self-righteous. We naturally come by it because of our carnal minds.
Now, it is important here that we are setting context for this lesson that Jesus is about to give. And as Dr. Maas explained last week, the law is the definition of what needs to be done. God's agape Spirit poured out in our hearts enables us to know it and to fulfill it.
As we go to read on here in verse 25, we see it is no longer a private setting. We see there is a lawyer who was put to test Jesus and he is going to stand up and he is going to try to stump Him. The word translated lawyer here is not the lawyer that we would envision, you know, fighting in a courtroom or battling. This is basically an expert in the written law, similar to the scribes. They knew the letter of the law better than most. But at the same time, were blinded and deaf to the truth on what matters most to God. They were so focused on the negative, they had no time for the positive, to do good works of God's lovingkindness and mercy.
In verse 25 of Luke 10 note the use of behold here. We should always remember when we see behold, the writer is trying to get our attention. There is something here that we need to pay attention to. It is maybe not what meets the eye.
Luke 10:25-28 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."
Jesus has given the lawyer a real lesson here. "Yeah, it's really that simple. Just go do that and you're going to live, you're going to have eternal life if you just do that, just that little thing." But can we see what that message is? How many of us really believe that we meet this criteria day in and day out to agape God with all our every being, every second of the day?
At any point in time throughout the day, we can all exhibit agape. Remember agape is exhibited when we align our thoughts, our motive, with our action, and it is all aligned to do what is best for someone—aligned to God's purpose and plan. That is agape, walking in God's Spirit. But to agape God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, all our mind, we cannot hardly do that for even a minute. Our minds are constantly distracted. Even on this holy Sabbath day, how often have they been distracted? How often have we allowed them to drift into some other thought outside of God?
Now, we must strive to get there, mind you. This is not like a get-out-of-jail-free card because we cannot become omni-agape, all agape, all the time. We have to strive to get there but as long as we are human, we can never achieve this tall bar (and we could tie into James' message again here). It is very dangerous to have that much self-confidence and not have God-confidence and the humility to know how far, far we fall.
The lawyer should have really been humbled here. Right? He should have had some deep conviction, some repentance for how far he was from this high standard. But no; no, no, no! Did he give the proper response? The proper response would have been something like, "Teacher, we're all too carnal and sinful. We can't possibly achieve this standard. Where can we go to find redemption for our sins? We can't do it on our own."
But notice his response. He just skips over that first great commandment just to say, "Yup. Got that one licked just like You. I'm all agape all the time." And then he goes and he nitpicks on the second commandment. The second great commandment to agapeo our neighbor as ourselves. Let us read on in verse 29 now.
Luke 10:29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
Now, the lawyer is trying to use a technicality just like a lawyer would use in a courtroom. He is trying to limit those that he has to agape and his defense simply is, "my enemy is not my neighbor so I don't need to love him. And I can define who my enemy is and therefore I can put a smaller scope on those that I have to agape."
But we can tie this right back to the scriptures we already read in Luke 6 or Matthew 5:43. "You have heard it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' (and we can recall Richard's "But I Say to You" series recently) But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."
Clearly seeing the lawyer's self-confidence and self-righteousness here, Jesus could have really put him in his place. He could have given the scoldings and those woes that we are going to read about a few chapters later because He eventually does hit him pretty hard with that. But instead, He patiently exemplifies—now get this—Jesus patiently exemplifies the character of the hero in the story He is about to use to teach the lesson to the spiritually blinded lawyer.
Luke 10:30 Then Jesus answered 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, the man who fell among thieves is a Jew, possibly even a priest or Levite. How do we know this? Well, the road was the primarily thoroughfare between Jerusalem and Jericho. It was used by thousands of priests every day who resided in Jericho, but served in Jerusalem. And same thing for the Levites who served in the Temple. They had a lower role, but they were constantly going back and forth. But along this road are some major rock outcroppings and it is very easy for someone to hide back behind there and catch somebody unaware.
The historian Josephus (I found this pretty interesting), states that in Judea about this time, robbers were pretty prevalent and he attributed to the fact that Herod the Great had suddenly dismissed about 40,000 former Temple workers. So all of these workers all of a sudden are unemployed and they need a way to make money and they turn to thievery. That is his theory at least. But he said it was very, very dangerous on this road at that time in Jerusalem. So let us read on here. We know the story well so we are going to go pretty quick.
Luke 10:31-32 "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 the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side."
The first two men passed by; and there could be a lot of reasons why. The priest, perhaps, did not want to become defiled by touching a dead body. He would not be able to serve after all. He would miss his opportunity to give sacrifices at the Temple. Maybe they both thought the beaten man must have brought something on, done something and brought it on himself. Maybe he was careless. He was walking alone in the dark. He brought it on himself. Maybe they were both running behind and a little late. That one fits me a little too often. Maybe, they reasoned their sacrificing at the Temple, serving God in the letter of His law, was much more important than stopping and extending mercy to the one in need. Or maybe they just did not want to be burdened.
Now, we are going to summarize verses 33 and 35 for the sake of time here.
The most unlikely hero, a good Samaritan, has compassion on the stranger. Ironically, it was his arch-enemy; and he takes care of the man's injuries, cleaning, bandaging the wounds. He takes him to the innkeeper and leaves money with the promise to pay more as needed. Basically saying, "Take good care of him. I'll pay for whatever it takes for him to be fully recovered and restored." Picking up now in verse 36.
Luke 10:36-37 "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" And he said [the lawyer, that is], "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said [and I want us to get this] to him [and us], "Go and do likewise."
Go and do likewise.
The lawyer here is forced into becoming his own judge and we could tie this so nicely back to Leviticus 19. How we judge others in need, the level of mercy that we use in our judgment, is measured back to us, Jesus tells us.
And so the B.L.O.T. here (the bottom line on top), agape is kind and merciful. We must not be like the hypocritical lawyer who tried to put boundaries around who he had to love. Jesus commands, "Go and do likewise." Show mercy, show lovingkindness to anyone you find in need. This could be a significant act of kindness and sacrifice or it could just be common courtesy of a warm smile.
Knowing the first two turned their back not just on anyone, not just on a neighbor, but likely on a member of their own spiritual community, I think we could see a little instruction here to the end time church even. There is a warning for those that can see and hear it. We must not turn our back on anyone in need and we especially must not turn our back on anyone in our spiritual community who might be in need. We are all on this dangerous journey together. We can all at times fall victim to Satan's attacks. We can fall physically and spiritually unwell. At times we are all on the side of the road, so to speak, on the verge of a physical and/or spiritual death.
Now, what is our reaction to those who have fallen to various trials or perhaps even fallen as a victim to their own sin of weakness? Do we take time to extend lovingkindness through healing words and actions or are we too worried about, "Hmm, we might get defiled by their sins," so we go to great lengths just to avoid them, to classify them not as our neighbor. They are not part of our spiritual community, even if they are here, because they are a sinner. We do not want to be involved with them in any way. Are we just too busy to stop and help? Or are we like that lawyer who is just working to justify ourselves by suggesting those people who desperately need help, well, again, they are not our neighbor.
Turn with me now to Ephesians 2. Now, what if we changed our point of view here for just a minute? What if we took the point of view on the story of the beaten stranger? I want us to think for a minute. How would that story end for us? How did that beaten man react to this act of kindness from his arch-enemy? Did he shudder when he woke up and try to shake off the unclean Samaritan sin because he touched them? Did he walk around angry for the rest of his life because he was done wrong by that robber who beat him and stole from him and put him on the verge of death? Or did he go forward in life with a greater appreciation for the great act of kindness that literally saved his life? Did he pay it forward, so to speak, the rest of his life, looking for opportunities to do the same to others?
Now, just like the self-righteous lawyer, our evil hearts will try to convince us to put boundaries around our agape love, to put boundaries around who is our neighbor and deserving of our agape, lovingkindness, and mercy. But if we all stop and think, think about a time when we were the one on the side of the road, facing near spiritual death. We have all been there prior to baptism. We were all there. If we think about the times when we as a carnal-minded enemy of God received undeserving agape love flowing in kindness and mercy from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, who was real busy but not too busy to stop along the roadside to help us. When we think about His great lovingkindness and mercy by which He healed our wounds and paid the massive debt to save us, He put no limit on how much He was going to do for us. Right?
Just like the good Samaritan. He left and said, whatever it takes. He did not know. It could have been weeks, could have been months, could have been years the guy was unable to walk and needed to be kept in the inn. He put no limits on it.
God's agape love has no limits, brethren. Think about what Jesus Christ gave for us. He held nothing back. There is no greater love than this: to lay down your life for your friends, He tells us. When we do this, the agape Spirit of God is literally poured into our hearts and we become motivated to go and do likewise, to extend out God's love through acts of kindness and mercy to those in need.
Ephesians 2:4-10 [note these words here] But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great [agape] with which He [agapeod] us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship [His creation], created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God's agape is rich in mercy and kindness and we are saved by His unmerited agape. And he tells us we are His workmanship. We are being created to be just like Him and therefore we are being created to walk in good works of agape's lovingkindness and mercy. He says, "Go and do likewise."
Now, Jesus literally rejoices earlier in Luke as He tells us, "Blessed are your eyes which see and your ears who hear." We have been blessed, brethren, with the knowledge that we are all sinners. We fall short—really short—every day. In Titus 3:5 we read, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He has saved us." God, in His great love and mercy, has revealed to us the spiritual identity of His Son and through Him the purpose of His Plan to create us in His agape Spirit.
In a way, Jesus is that good Samaritan who shows us mercy and kindness when we do not deserve it. He heals our wounds and He pays all our debt. He commands us to remember that and to "go and do likewise," to show mercy, to pour out our agape lovingkindness to our neighbors in need.
Now, as I continued my drive home, I kept thinking about the woman holding the sign with that young child behind her. And I was ashamed. I had missed my opportunity that day. I thought about how many times have I had the right thought and motivation, like I wanted to do something I knew I should, but yet I failed on the third attribute of agape. Right? Agape is thought, it is motivation, and it is action—all three together. I failed on number three. I get number one and two pretty right. I like to be good, I want to do good, but I fail to take proper action.
How many times do we know to do good, brethren, but instead we fail to do it? Do we know what that is called? It is called sin. Yeah, James tells us that.
Now, perhaps it was because this study was very fresh on my mind, but I just could not let it go. And God who is rich in His mercy reminded me of how many times He has picked me up, dusted me off from the side of the road, and tended to my wounds. He reminded me of the times when He has paid an awesome debt for my sins, when I was His enemy, when I was undeserving. He reminded me of His unmerited love and forgiveness, mercy.
And just then I remembered earlier that day—I never have cash—but as I put my security badge back in my bag, I saw some cash that was left over from a previous trip, probably a trip overseas. It was rare, I thought, to have found it that day and it was even more rare that God popped that into my mind. Yes, I believe He poured out some of His agape Spirit into my heart because He made me turn around. And it is a simple story, I know. But as I pulled up, I rolled down that window, I handed the money, and her son comes up from behind with huge big eyes and just smiles and says, "Thank you, sir. Thank you very much."
I feel like my life is often a bit like that movie Groundhog Day. After so many times of getting it wrong, God patiently waits. He motivates me and eventually I finally get it right. So that day I got it right. Took me a second try, but I got it right. But I wonder and I think about the many times when I did not get it right. How many times every day do we miss the opportunity to extend God's agape love, His lovingkindness, and His mercy to someone in need? Someone in need right here among us or someone in need that has not been exposed to His truth.
Blessed are we for having eyes to see and ears to hear His great message to us. God's agape love is kind and merciful. So, brethren, let us go and do likewise!
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