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“Put
On the Lord Jesus Christ”
a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Romans 13: 8 – 14
“Instead, put on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Dear Sisters and Brothers are we also neighbors?
This is a Biblical question.
In the verses we just read from Romans, the apostle Paul is
teaching and giving a picture of the true and real divine life we are
given in Jesus Christ. He
is teaching us what Jesus taught him.
There was an event in Jesus’ life, before his crucifixion and
resurrection, when an expert in the laws of the Hebrew Bible came on to
Jesus, really wanting to test him in such a way that would show Jesus as
a failure. He asked Jesus, “Teacher, what must I do to make sure I
will have eternal life? “
Jesus knew what kind of intellectual this man was, and he knew what this
man was trying to do to him. So,
instead of answering this man’s question, Jesus asked him one: “What
is basically written in the Bible’s laws?
What do you truly hear?”
In this questioning and testing situation, the legal Bible scholar
answered Jesus with, “Love the Lord, your God with all your heart,
soul, strength, and mind. Love
your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus
told the man this was the right answer, and if he did this he would
live. Well, the man then
wanting to defend and justify himself, asked Jesus, “Who is my
neighbor? “
Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, knowing that they were familiar
with commandments in the Hebrew Bible; commandments like, do not commit
adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet.
Paul grew up, and was highly educated in the Jewish religion.
He was even as high up as a Pharisee before he was converted into
a Christian. Now Paul knew
that most of the Christians in Rome were Gentiles before they became
Christians. He did not want
them all caught up in religious legalism, so he summed it all up to them
in God’s word: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Before we look into the answer of the question about who our neighbor
is, I think it will really help us first to ask and find the answer to:
“Who am I a neighbor to?” When
that lawyer asked Jesus who his neighbor is, Jesus told him the famous
parable that we title as the Good Samaritan.
I believe you know the story. It
begins at verse 29, in Luke chapter10; if you want to read it later.
A man is leaving Jerusalem, on his way to Jericho. This implies that he is Jewish.
On his way he was attacked by some criminal robbers, who beat
him, stripped him, stole everything he had, and threw him off the road,
leaving him there, dying. Later,
at two individual times, two Jewish leaders, a Priest and a Levite, both
saw this death suffering man, and just kept on walking, offering no help to him. Then a
Samaritan, whom the Jewish were very prejudice against, came and did
everything needed to save this man’s life.
After Jesus told this parable, he then asked the lawyer to tell him
which of these three men was a neighbor to the man who was dying.
The lawyer said, “The one who showed mercy. “ Jesus then told him that was the right answer, and that he
should go do the same kind of things in his life.
This man asked Jesus to tell him who his neighbors are. But Jesus told him a story implying who is a neighbor to him
when he is suffering. When
we notice someone suffering, and we help them, they are our neighbor,
and we are a neighbor to them.
After all this being said, there is a wonderful Spiritual truth that
this parable, and Paul telling us to put on our Lord Jesus Christ, are
both pointing to. Our most truly merciful neighbor is God the Father.
In Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, the man beat and left
for death stands for Jesus. The
Priest and Levite stand for the Jewish religious official leaders who do
no believe Jesus is the Messiah. The
Good Samaritan stands for God the Father who brings us all back to life,
in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.
Oh my gosh, why would Jesus use a Samaritan to stand for our
heavenly Father? Because
God the Father is our greatest neighbor, but we have a hard time with
that truth.
My friend, Dr. Baxter Kruger, has one of his own illustrations of this:
If I was in a park and saw a guy, bigger than me, who I know as a
bully, I would not be scared if I was already with a friend of his.
But, if his friend ran off, I would then be scared.
Baxter says that is similar to how we think of the Father. If we imagine the Father seeing us standing there with Jesus
holding our hand, we feel happy and safe.
Yet, if the Father saw Jesus run off away from us for some
reason, we would probably be scared to death.
To put on the Lord Jesus Christ has a lot to do with believing in
God the Father’s love for us.
In the last few years I’ve really been curious about something.
There are many different kinds of names for denominational and
non-denominational churches. I think that is wonderful; mainline churches, Pentecostal
churches, Christ churches, Bible churches … etc. What I am curious about is why I have never heard of a church
with the Father’s name. I
would love to hear of God the Father’s Presbyterian Church.
Or, for some of us who have read the book titled The Shack,
we might like to hear of Papa’s Presbyterian Church.
Sisters and Brothers, we are neighbors.
As we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we will come to see, by the
Holy Spirit, that our greatest neighbor of all is our heavenly Papa.
Let us pray …
Amen.
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