February 23, 2025

Luke 10:25-37

Unexpected Mercy

Sunday Sermons

The parable of the Good Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most well-known teachings, but its depth goes far beyond a simple moral lesson. In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus responds to a lawyer’s question about inheriting eternal life by pointing to the heart of God’s law: love for God and love for neighbor. Yet, through this encounter, Jesus exposes the impossibility of perfectly fulfilling the law on our own strength and reveals our profound need for God’s grace and mercy.

Join Pastor Tommy as we explore how Jesus redefines what it means to love God and others. His mercy is not only for the broken man on the roadside but also for the self-assured lawyer—and for us. Whether you wrestle with the weight of legalism or the pull of self-centeredness, Jesus invites you to step into a life centered on Him.

Speaker

Tommy Bailey

Series

The Gospel According to Luke

Go to Series

Scripture

Luke 10:25-37

Topics
Community Life Spiritual Disciplines

Sermon Notes

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5

“…You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
Leviticus 19:18

The Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:1-11

Love of God

1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exodus 20:12-17

Love of Neighbor

5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

 

“In our zeal to become the landlords of our own being, we cling to each achievement as a kind of verification of our self-proclaimed reality. We become the center and God somehow recedes to an invisible fringe.”
James Finley

The Demands of God’s Law

The Depth of Our Need

“The deeper I understand myself and my Savior, the more I realize how weak I am, how patient He is, and how utterly dependent upon Him I am for everything.”
Brian Hedges, Watchfulness

“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
Philippians 3:7-8

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:20

The Scope of God’s Mercy

“No eye is quicker to see the mercy of God than the eye washed with the tears of repentance.”
Charles Spurgeon

“Whatever it be that makes us trust in ourselves that we are comparatively wise or good, so as to treat those with contempt who do not subscribe to our doctrines, or follow our party, is a proof and fruit of a self-righteous spirit.”
John Newton

“It is a wonderfully liberating experience when the desire to please God overtakes the desire to please ourselves, and when love for others displaces love for self. True freedom is not freedom from responsibility to God and others in order to live for ourselves, but freedom from ourselves in order to live for God and others.”
John Stott

No heart is quicker to extend mercy than a heart that has been touched by the mercy of God.

Discussion Questions

  • How do you view God’s Moral Law (10 Commandments) in the Old Testament – as a list of rules to keep? Or as a standard of perfection, impossible to keep but intended to show us our sin and our need for a savior?
  • Like the lawyer in our passage, are you “doing” for God (self-salvation, legalism), or do you understand that through Christ, our salvation is “done” (grace)? Have you ever considered the difference between behavior modification and a heart change resulting in changed behavior?
  • When you think about the Samaritans in your life (“repugnant others”), are you conscious of your own bias and actively asking for opportunities to show compassion? How might God use an act of unexpected mercy to further the kingdom?

Songs, Readings & Prayer

Songs

“All My Boast Is in Jesus“ by Bryan Fowler, Matt Papa, Matthew Boswell, Keith Getty
“O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing“ by Charles Wesley
 “The Lord is My Salvation“ Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Nathan Nockles and Jonas Myrin, Orchestrated by Paul Campell
“I Need Thee Every Hour“ by Annie Sherwood Hawks and Robert Lowry
 “Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois

All songs are used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690

Call To Worship: A Congregational Prayer

Lord, fill our hearts with reverence for You. Make us hunger for Your Word and passionately desire to walk in Your ways. Forgive us our sins, for they are many. Give us a greater glimpse of Your glory as we offer You this praise and worship. We thank You for the way You have rescued us over and over, through many difficult things. Come now and help us in this: to place our trust, hope, and confidence in You. May Your name be honored in our conduct. May Your kingdom be made visible in our relationships. May Your will be done in our hearts and minds. This we pray in the Name above all names, Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs all glory, forever and ever, amen!

Confession: The Apostles’ Creed

Leader: What do you mean when you call God “Father”?
People: When I call God “Father,” I declare that I was created for relationship with him, that I trust in God as my Protector and Provider, and that I put my hope in God as his child and heir in Christ.

Leader: Why do you call God the Father “Almighty”?
People: I call the Father “Almighty” because he has power over everything and accomplishes everything he wills. Together with his Son and Holy Spirit, the Father is all-knowing and ever present in every place.

Source: ACNA, Q. 40-41

Classic Prayer: Evelyn Underhill, 1875-1941

O God! Who makes all things work together for good to them that love You, grant to our hearts an invincible power of courage and love; and continually pour into our souls the holy desire of seeking You, that being turned aside from temptations, obstacles and hindrances, we may come at last, where alone true peace into be found.

To Your loving mercy, O Lord, we commend all those whose we love – our relations, our kindred, our friends, all who are in sickness or sorrow or distress of any kind, all sinners all penitents, all for whom we pray and all who pray for us. Bring us all closer together by bringing us all nearer to you we pray in your most gracious name, Amen.

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