Telling the Truth

Stuart Briscoe: Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe shares how loving God and loving your neighbor go hand in hand. But first, did you know the book of Revelation is meant to encourage you in turbulent times? It's a fascinating but mysterious book. It's apocalyptic, prophetic, and pastoral, all at once.

And we want to help you dive into its encouraging message by sending you Stuart Briscoe's series, End Times: What's Going On? It's our thanks for your financial support to keep this broadcast going strong. But this offer ends this week, so call today to request your copy and uncover God's plan for the End Times.

1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill Briscoe with the start of her message, Helping the Hurting.

Jill Briscoe: I'm going to talk about the parable of the Good Samaritan, probably one of the most familiar of the parables of Jesus. Now, remember that the parables of Jesus walked the streets of life, his life.

And when he begins this story in Luke chapter 10, he's talking about a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. And those of you who have been to the Holy Land can remember getting in a bus, which is a nice way to do it instead of a donkey, and going from Jericho to Jerusalem, at least that's what we usually do. We do not go from Jerusalem down to Jericho. Jericho is well below sea level. Jerusalem is well above on mountains.

And the incredible steepness of that trip from Jerusalem down to Jericho or from Jericho up to Jerusalem, is something that always amazes the pilgrim as we experience it. Halfway along that road is an inn. It's still there. It's now a modern inn, but it is built on the site of the only inn that's ever been there, halfway between Jerusalem and Jericho.

It's a wild road, lots of rocks, of course there's rocks all over the Holy Land, it's made of rocks. But there's lots of places to hide, there's lots of places that brigands could hide and steal things from people and attack people.

And so when Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan, of the man that went from Jerusalem to Jericho. Everybody clicked in. They knew exactly what this was all about. Because it was an occurrence that happened over and over again, that somebody would be robbed and beaten and maybe even killed on that road.

As a teacher myself, I've been really impressed as I've done this study for my own heart's good, and then shared it with you. How many illustrations Jesus uses from everyday life, just down to earth illustrations. Illustrations are windows, they let the light into a talk. If you have too many windows, you'll blind people to the frame and to what it's all about. But if you don't have any windows, you'll bore people.

And when I look at the way Jesus used illustration and specifically in parable, I have been really encouraged to work harder myself at using illustrations from the streets of life. That have walked the streets of my life and your life. Because that's how we can apply it to our own hearts.

So life in the kingdom, and life in the kingdom is what this series is all about, when you know the king and you enter the kingdom and you start and enjoy the kingdom, involves loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself.

Now you can keep a finger in the parable we're going to be looking at, but I want you to turn back to Matthew chapter 25 for a minute. Matthew chapter 25. Jesus gives another parable here about the sheep and the goats. He's giving three parables about the consummation of the age, the end times. And what he's doing is trying to show people the urgency of kingdom work and of kingdom living.

And he talks about the Son of Man coming in his glory in verse 31, and all the angels with him, sitting on his throne in heavenly glory, and the judgment of the world beginning. All the nations gathered before him. And he's going to separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. He'll put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

And then he'll say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you looked after me. I was in prison, and you came to visit me." And the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and sick and needing clothing," etc. And the King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." And then he reverses it and says to the ones on his left, "You didn't feed me when I was hungry. You didn't clothe me when I was naked."

And so what he's doing is he's dividing the sheep from the goats. Sheep and goats don't look that alike, but they do look a little bit alike. And the idea is that people that belong to the King are, in this parable, sheep.

And sheep, a characteristic of a sheep, actually, is to be a sheepdog in the east. Yes, the Eastern shepherds have sheepdogs, but when a sheep really gets into trouble, and gets itself, a stupid sheep, well, stuck up on a ledge, and the shepherd can't reach him and nobody can reach him and the sheepdog certainly can't climb up to the ledge. What the shepherd does is he takes the sheep that is always tripping him up, the one that stays close to his heel, and he sends that particular pet sheep, if you wish, after the lost one. And the sheep goes up on that ledge and leads the other one out.

It's a characteristic of sheep to care for lost sheep. It's not a characteristic of goats. Goats don't bother. And Jesus very vividly is saying, "Are you a sheep or are you a goat?"

One of the ways you can know that you belong to the king, and people have been asking me through this series, "How can I know? How can I be sure?" Is to look at your life, look at what you do with your time, and ask yourself, "Am I after the lost? Am I caring? Am I feeding the hungry? Am I clothing?" etc., etc. "Am I loving my neighbor as much as I love my selfish self?"

So a characteristic of one who is in the kingdom, serving the king, is that we care for our neighbor, we care for our neighbor. Now you can turn back to the parable in Luke's Gospel chapter 10. And let's read it together.

"On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. 'Teacher,' he asked, 'what must I do to inherit eternal life?'" "'What's written in the law?' Jesus replied. 'How do you read it?'" "He said, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.'" "'You've answered correctly,' Jesus replied, 'do this and you will live.'" "But he wanted to justify himself, so he said to Jesus, 'So, who's my neighbor?'" "And Jesus tells a parable to drive the point home."

"A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, went away leaving him half dead." "A priest happened to be going down the same road, when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side." "So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side." "But a Samaritan as he traveled, came where the man was." "And when he saw him, he took pity on him." "So he went to him, bandaged his wounds, poured on oil and wine, put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn and took care of him." "The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper." "'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'" "'Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?'" "And the expert in the law replied, 'The one who had mercy on him.'" "Jesus told him, 'Go and do likewise.'"

So a characteristic of someone who claims to be a sheep, a lost sheep that's been found, characteristic of somebody that claims to be a Christian, a believer, a member of the body of Christ.

Stuart Briscoe: That's Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. She said it right back to God's word for more on how you can show your love to God by caring for those in need. But before we dive back in, if you ever wonder what the end times hold for humanity, there's no better place to look than the book of Revelation. And while many shy away from this mysterious book of the Bible, it contains so much encouragement for you today. We want to help you uncover the mystery of the end times with Stuart's eight-message series, End Times: What's Going On?

In this long-awaited series, Stuart dives into the Apostle John's writings in Revelation to help you make sense of this mysterious book of the Bible. You'll uncover the key promises it contains for the end times, and how its prophetic words can strengthen your faith today. End Times is our thanks for your gift today to help more people experience life in Christ through the ministry of Telling the Truth. But this special offer is only good through the end of this week, so call today to request your copy of the series when you give to help more people experience life. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388, or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

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Jill Briscoe: So a characteristic of someone who claims to be a sheep, a lost sheep that's been found, characteristic of somebody that claims to be a Christian, a believer, a member of the body of Christ. Is that we will look after the man in the ditch.

Now, the context of this story is interesting. The previous chapter, Jesus has sent out the 70 to go into every village, heal the sick, and preach the gospel. To care both for the souls of men and their physical needs. One is not divorced from the other.

And for years and years and years, ever since I became a Christian, there has been a debate in the Evangelical Church about doing good for people, about caring for their bodies as opposed to caring for their souls. And in a sense, the liberal church, if you wish, has done a wonderful job of caring for people's physical material needs. While the Evangelical wing of the church has done a wonderful job in caring for the souls of men. It was Dr. John Stott that brought the two together. As he said, "You cannot divorce one from another. Read the Epistle of James and you will see, 'Show me your faith by your works,' says James." Works and faith have to go together.

As many of you know, I serve a relief organization. I serve World Relief. And people often ask me, "I don't want to give my money to something that just looks after people's bodies. I just want to give it to missions that just preach the gospel." Well, let me tell you, if we can keep them alive so you can preach the gospel, that's a good idea. Somebody has got to be alive to be able to hear and respond to the gospel.

And just at very basic bottom line, we often ignore the many, many places in the scriptures that Jesus addresses the physical, emotional, psychological, material needs of men. At the expense of anything else, for the sake of the love of God in our hearts translated into practical, compassionate, giving and living. This is why Jesus came. And he makes no apology for it. He says, "You show me a man who is loving his neighbor practically, and I will show you a man who loves God." How do you know you love God? How you treating your neighbor will give you a good idea.

So as Jesus addresses the issue of loving God that this young man tests him with in the parable, the beginning of the parable. He says, "You know, you've got to love God with all your mind and heart and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself." Let me just address those three things at the moment or four things. "What does it mean to love him with all your heart?" Well, the heart is the seat of the emotions. The heart affects everything we do. Out of the heart of man, says Jesus, comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lies and slander. Does this heart sound like a heart that will go to the mission field? Something has to happen to the heart we're born with, if we're ever going to get down in the ditch with the man who needs help.

So bypass surgery isn't going to do it. Only a transplant, and you know Ezekiel 36:26 talks about a heart transplant. Talks about the new covenant. In the Old Testament, people tried to love God with that old heart, and it didn't work. But in the New Testament, under the new covenant, Ezekiel promises, "I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." And when we receive the heart of Jesus, God will move us, and that word is the same as compassion. Compassion moves you into practical, loving action, in order to love your neighbor as much as you love your selfish self.

So the great transaction has to take place. Of course, if you're going to have a heart transplant, you need a donor. Quite a few years ago, one of our men's teams from this church went to one of the African countries and came back with two brothers. One of them had incurable kidney disease and the other came to give one of his kidneys to his brother. And our Christian doctors did that operation and ministered to those two young men. And I well remember the young man who had given his kidney to his brother, giving testimony in our service here, actually, in this chapel. I remember that very well. And as I sat there, I thought, what an incredible sacrifice, and actually later his brother died. But he gave it anyway, even though it was a last effort to save his brother's life. And perhaps, which of us would not do the same? But have you ever heard anybody say, "You need a heart transplant? Take mine?" I haven't.

Until I look in the scriptures and I look at Calvary. And then I see Jesus on the operating table, if you like, shaped like a cross saying, "Father, take mine." And God took the heart of Jesus and offered that heart to a world that only knew what it was to have a heart of stone, to be cold to the needs of others. And when you receive his nature, then you find yourself moved in ways that you were never moved before. Ways you are never moved before. Then it's your job to look after that heart, and to have this rhythm of work and worship, work and worship, work and worship in your life.

So to love God with all your heart means you have to receive the nature of Jesus. It's another way of saying be converted, be born again, come to faith in him. Loving him with all your soul means looking after that relationship once you have received the heart of Jesus as it were. Practicing the presence of God in worship and prayer. This will mean time alone, but it will also mean practicing the presence of God when you're not alone, in the crowd, in the busy place, centering down, having that moment by moment relationship with this moment by moment savior. That's what Christianity is all about.

So loving him with all your soul means developing this relationship with the King once you've found him. And loving him with all your mind, what does that bring to mind in scripture? Immediately to me it brings Romans 12:1 and 2 to mind. "Don't be conformed, pressed into the mold of this world, but be informed so you can be transformed," those verses tell us. We need to be informed through our mind, through the word. We need to be transformed by the word that we receive and the instructions that God is going to give us how to love our neighbor as ourself. And we will be transfigured, and the word is metamorphosized. We will be like a little bug, if you wish, that turns into a butterfly, turns into quite a different person. Instead of being selfish, we will be other-orientated, so much so that we will be able to rise above our own stuff and get involved in other people's stuff.

Years and years ago, I wrote a little poem about a bug. "Wouldn't it be lovely if a bug could stay always warm inside its silk cocoon, protected all its days, alone in dark oblivion? No need to fly the skies. Let's face it, God's rebellious world's no place for butterflies." "Now God, he made these little bugs and placed within his life. So growth, the natural evidence, brings strain and stress and strife." "For as she grows, the cozy case becomes a prison strong. The bug now knows she must break out, to stay a bug is wrong." "At last the struggle over, the butterfly is free to fly God's earth, upheld by him in matchless symmetry." "Cries watching man in God's great world, a miracle is this, from crumpled bug to butterfly, God's metamorphosis." And what happens is you find yourself flying. You find yourself not behaving like a bug, preserving yourself in a prison of selfishness. But you find yourself flying around God's earth, upheld by his power, a different person altogether.

Stuart Briscoe: That's Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. She'll be right back to answer some important questions about today's message. Revelation.