Michael Youssef - Whose Disciple? - Part 4
Now, to the younger generation might not know this, but when we were young you remember we used to play that game "Spinning the Top". And we competed on seeing which top would spin longest, and we compared top sizes and shapes. And then we got older and we ceased to spin tops, oh, but we allowed our lives to spin like tops. We compete to see whose life can spin faster and longer. We think of ways of how to spin our lives bigger and better. Let me give you three comparisons between spinning tops and spinning lives. Okay? And if the cap fits, wear it. All right? Spinning tops have to have a big head and a thin base. It cannot remain standing unless it's spinning. A top is always spinning around itself.
When your life is spinning like a top, it means that you do have a big head and a thin base. You cannot stand still unless you're spinning and you're spinning around yourself. This is a far cry from the life that Jesus want his disciples to live, and Jesus wants his disciples to live like Jesus. So I want you to turn with me, please, to Luke chapter 10, verses 30 to 37. It's a very familiar passage, but don't run ahead of me because I may not go where you're going. This story that Jesus tells is a summary of his own life and mission. This is Jesus's story, and let me put it in context. Okay? The discussion was and began by a lawyer was trying to quiz Jesus. This lawyer wanted to know what kind of life could he live in order that he may earn eternal life.
You see, always thinking of earning eternal life. First, Jesus quoted the Scriptures. We saw that in the last message loving like Jesus and why it was a new command that Jesus said, "Love one another as I have loved you". But Jesus quoted the Old Testament, and he said you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, et cetera, and then love your neighbor as yourself. But lawyers, you have to understand, they're very practical people. They're very practical. They're down to earth. This lawyer wanted to know how this loving God and your neighbors actually work in day-to-day life. How is this going to... I mean, how are you going to live it?
It's one thing to recite it, and it's called the Shema in Hebrew language. And they will say, "Oh, hear, oh Israel. The Lord God is one God..." And they will just rattle it every day literally. But this man really wants to know, "How does this work in my daily life? How does it work in my daily living? If I am to love my neighbor, first of all define who is my neighbor". Well, let me give you first a Youssef translation, actually a Youssef interpretation. Okay? You're not going to find it this way in the Bible. As if Jesus is saying to this man, "Let me bring the cookie jar all the way to the bottom shelf so that even a child can reach it".
And he tells him a story that illustrates Jesus's own life and by implication it's a model for any disciple or would-be disciple of Jesus, and this is a picture of someone who is in desperate need. I mean, this man is in desperation. It's between life and death. Can't get more desperate than that, and he gets bypassed by the very people who are supposed to meet needs. This delsperate man gets bypassed by the very people who were commanded by God to exercise mercy. He gets bypassed by the very people who could have met his need, but their lives being spinning like a top around itself they ignored him. He gets bypassed by the very people who are supposed to help him.
The first was a priest. The priest bypassed him. And priests in the Old Testament were actually commissioned by God to minister to hurting people. Remember, every time Jesus healed a leper he said, "Go to the priest". Because that's part of the priesthood in the Old Testament. They're partly medical, partly help, partly meeting of that need. He saw the bleeding man and he looked the other way and he just kept walking, didn't see anything. And then he followed by a Levite.
Now, the Levites were consumed by religious rituals and all day long religious rituals, religious rituals. They were spinning around religious rituals. And so he too pretended he didn't see anything and just kept walking and looking the other way. Now, beloved, please listen to me. This is a picture also of ineffectiveness, the ineffectiveness of religious rituals. In fact, dead rituals freezes the hearts, dead rituals cannot save souls, dead rituals cannot meet real needs. Well, then a Samaritan was passing by. Samaritan helping a Jew is absolutely incongruous in that time because historically the Samaritans hated the Jews and the Jews returned the favor. But they really were related to each other.
They were relatives because the Samaritans were part Jews and part Gentiles, and the truth is due to no fault of their own the Samaritans ended up in no man's land. They were hated by the Jews. They were hated by the Gentiles. They were kind of really in precarious situation. They couldn't fit with the Jews. They couldn't fit with the Gentiles. They were really a desperate people if you think about it this way, and I want you to think about this long and hard. And yet even though the Samaritan is alienated, even they're rejected, even they're despised; he does four important things that actually illustrate what our rejected, despised, maligned Lord Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary.
Here are the four things, and I have them all start with the same letter, so I pray to God you don't forget them for a long time or ever. The first thing he did, he stopped; secondly, he stooped; thirdly, he served; and finally, he saved. First of all, he stopped. Now, we know virtually nothing about this Samaritan man and yet, when you think about it, he has inspired countless of people, countless of people for 2,000 years. Think of how many ministries and how many churches and how many hospitals are called the Good Samaritan.
Remember this. This Samaritan was not on a holiday because I tell you nobody take that road that was absolutely filled with robbers, filled with danger unless you have a very serious business to attend to. You don't go there if you want to go for a walk in the park. That's not a place you go to. So he was not on holiday. He's got plenty of time or...this Samaritan was not sort of sitting idly by looking for something to do.
This Samaritan did not even have few hours to kill. Jesus said something absolutely shakes me to the core in John chapter 10. He said, "I had authority to lay it down," talking about his life, "and I had authority not to do it, but I chose to lay it down and take it back up again". He said, "That is why my Father loves me. That's why my Father loves me". Jesus could have chosen to stay in heaven or leave the splendor of heaven to come to desperate people. Jesus could have said, "I have a universe to run. I have a world to take care of. Why should I go down to this miserable, sin-filled earth"?
But I'm absolutely grateful to the Lord and I will be until I see him face to face that he did come to redeem us and redeem every repentant sinner. Had he not stopped to experience firsthand our miserable condition, our sinful world, our guilt-stricken lives, and our hell-bound eternity, you and I would not be eternally saved and we wouldn't be here today. Oh, that is why every true disciple of Jesus, every true disciple of Jesus must live in total gratitude to Jesus for stopping. Please listen to me. To all of Jesus's disciples and would-be disciples, how many people around you that are desperate for salvation? Have you stopped, have you stopped to ponder their desperate condition?
Whose disciples? But secondly; he did not only stop, he stooped. He stooped. Oh, my goodness. It's one thing to stop and maybe look at the person or just say a comforting word and move on, but it's a whole different ballgame to stoop. Why? Because stooping can be hazardous for your health. Actually, it's not. It's good exercise. Try it. But for this Samaritan to stoop was very hazardous for him. It's a very dangerous road. It was filled with robbers. People never traveled on that road at night. Not only that, but he risked his own reputation.
Reputation, the risk for that reputation with his fellow Samaritan was huge. Listen to me. He did not only stop and stoop to help a fellow Samaritan or a relative or somebody he recognized. No, no, no. He was helping a dying enemy. He humiliated himself. He risked the scorn and the mocking of his fellow Samaritans. Why didn't he just pass on the other side? Why didn't he just look the other way? Why didn't he just shut his eyes and pretend he didn't see just like the priest and the Levi? Why didn't he just pretend that everything is fine, somebody else is going to take care of it? Why did he not just close his ears to the cry of this desperate man? And Jesus is saying, "This man did what I, Jesus, did".
This man modeled Jesus. This man was Jesus's true disciple. And he did not only stop, but he stooped. Jesus did not only stop, he stooped. He laid aside his royal diadem, he laid aside the praises of the angels, he laid aside the majesty of his office, he laid aside his limitless sovereign power and he stopped and he stooped into our world. Why? So that he may experience what we experience, so that he may feel what we feel, so that he may become one of us. And more than anything else, more than anything else, he stooped so that he may pay for the penalty of your sin and my sin. He stooped to take upon himself your judgment and my judgment. He stooped so that he may open the door of heaven to every repentant sinner. He stooped so that he may build a bridge to his heavenly Father for us. He stooped so that he may become our older brother, our older brother Jesus. Give him praise. Give him praise. This Samaritan did not only stop and stoop, he also served.
The president of the seminary that I attended back in the early '70s in Sydney, Australia, Moore College, Dr. Broughton Knox, brilliant man and yet the most humble man you'll meet, he drummed it in our ears: "Remember the son of God came not to be served but to serve". And, my beloved friends, the greatest service we can perform is being faithful witnesses for what God did for us. This Samaritan man did not only just stop and stooped and then whispered some sweet words in the man's ears, he would have said, "Hey, look up. Have hope. Things are going to get better. Don't worry about it". No, no, no, no. He placed this man on his beast and he walked. He carried this man's burden. He ministered to this man. He equipped this man back to health. He ensured that this man fully restored. He served. And for all of us disciples of Jesus who are loving like Jesus and living like Jesus, we need to equip others to be disciples.
Open the Word of God. Do what the blind man in John chapter 9 did. When they kept harassing him, he said, "Look, all I know is I was blind but now I see". That's his testimony. Also, this Samaritan took this man to others that they may help him. When he recognized he couldn't do everything, he involved others with him. First of all, he poured his wine and oil on him to cleanse his wounds, to cleanse his wounds, to purify his body, and ultimately to save him. Listen to me. When our precious Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross of Calvary, he became the only one, the only one, the only one who could heal and cleanse by his blood, he became the only one who could save and restore by his blood.
And don't miss what I'm going to tell you. Don't miss what I'm going to tell you. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse the heart from hatred, rebellion, and sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can purify our heart and mind. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can transform lives. And that is why the disciple of Jesus needs to learn to live like Jesus. Just in case you think I made it, no. I'm learning every day. I'm failing many times, but that does not stop me from learning to live like Jesus. Introduce desperate sinners to Jesus, and introducing desperate sinners to Jesus, you need to stop, stoop, serve, and help save. Beloved, living like Jesus calls us to imitate and emulate Jesus. Can I get an amen?
I pray to God that this will go deep into our hearts and in our minds today. I'm going to tell you about an historic incident. It's a fact, it's history, it's real. And I'm going to tell you this story as I conclude. Between the late 1800s and early 1900s there was an Indian evangelist by the name of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was a remarkable, remarkable man. He was marvelously converted from militant Hinduism to Christ. An amazing story. Indian believers know this as I traveled throughout India in the past. Now, he became well-known evangelist. So he was invited by some Hindu universities to come and speak to them, and in one symposium in one of the universities in India where he was invited as a guest speaker, the MC said to him, "Mr. Singh, what did you find in Christianity that you did not find or have in Hinduism"? The man got up and he said, "I found Jesus".
And then he sat down again. The MC said, "We know about Jesus, but what did you actually find in Christianity that's not in Hinduism"? He got up again and he said, "I found Jesus". And he sat down. And the man got exasperated because he did this five times. "We understand, we know about Jesus, but what did you really find"? And he gets up again and said, "I found Jesus". And sits down again. And he, seeing this frustration on the part of the MC and the crowd and the student body and a big auditorium and, he said, "Look, let me tell you a story. Hopefully will illustrate what I'm trying to tell you". He said, "There's a man who fell in a ditch".
Lots of ditches in some streets of India. He fell in a ditch. He said, "First of all he was desperate to calling for people to get him up, and the first person who came by was Krishna. And Krishna looked at him and he said, 'Oh, you poor man, this is your karma.' And then he walked away. Followed by Buddha. Buddha looked at the man and said, 'Oh, why did you walk on this side of the road and not on the other side of the road where there are no ditches?' And he walked away. He was followed by Muhammad. Muhammad came, looked at the man and felt sorry for him, and he said, 'My poor man, this is the will of Allah for you to be in that ditch.' Then finally Jesus came, and Jesus looked at this condition of this man. He did not say a word. He took off his robe, he jumped into the ditch, he put the man on his shoulders, and he took him out. That's what I found in Christianity. I found Jesus. This is what I mean by finding Jesus". And the room went into absolute silence as Mr. Singh presented Christ to the student body.