From our series in the Gospel of Luke (#21), Luke 10:25–11:13. Watch the full message: Three Pillars of Faithful Discipleship on YouTube.
Last week we saw Jesus send the seventy out across Judea to preach and to heal. The mission was a massive success. Even Satan himself panicked over how the work of Jesus’ disciples was disrupting his ability to influence this world. In that message, we saw what happens when faithful followers go out into the world and serve Christ.
Today we build on that idea by looking at three pillars of faithful discipleship: three areas that form the foundation of a faithful follower, drawn from three lessons Jesus taught in Luke 10:25–11:13. For those of you who love a structured, easy-to-remember three-point sermon, this sermon’s outline comes right out of Scripture. The three pillars are service, study, and supplication. If you’d rather not remember the word “supplication,” and you’re willing to sacrifice the alliteration, you can write them down as service, study, and prayer. From our time in Scripture today, God wants you to strengthen your relationship with Him and others through service, study, and prayer.
Pillar One: Service
And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luke 10:25
A lawyer, an expert in the Mosaic law and a scholar of the Old Testament Scriptures, stands up at one of Jesus’ lessons and asks Him an important question. When the King James says he “tempted” Jesus, we should understand “tempted” as testing Him, the way a teacher tests a student. The lawyer had seen Jesus’ disciples preach, and Jesus was famous and His teachings were big, but the lawyer wanted to see whether Jesus was all He was cracked up to be, and how much Jesus really knew about the Old Testament. The lawyer’s question is a good one, a question I hope everyone in this world would know the answer to, but his intentions were a little less than pure.
He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Luke 10:26–28
Jesus doesn’t exactly answer the lawyer’s question. As He often does, Jesus answers a question with another question. Instead of being tested, He turns around and tests the Bible scholar, asking what the Bible says and how the scholar understands the wording of the Scriptures. Notice that Jesus distinguishes between knowing what the Bible says and understanding what the words mean. A scholar of that day didn’t have access to the Torah scrolls all the time, so scholars memorized as much Scripture as they could. You could memorize the entire Bible from cover to cover, and that would be great, but if you don’t know what the words of the Bible mean, the memorizing won’t do you any good.
The scholar answers: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus says he answered correctly. If you love God and your neighbor that way, you will have eternal life. Why? Because if you successfully followed those commands your entire life, you would never have sinned one time. You would make it to heaven because you would be perfect, just like Jesus Himself. What are the chances we actually pull that off? Zero. None of us can live up to that standard perfectly. If the conversation had ended there, all would have been well. But the scribe, wanting to make himself look good, asks another question.
But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
Luke 10:29
The scribe wanted to show everyone how righteous he was. Who counts as a neighbor was a highly debated topic in the first century. Many religious leaders held a strict, narrow view of who counted as a neighbor, and the common definition of the day specifically excluded Samaritans and other non-Jews. The Torah says to love your neighbor, those leaders argued, but foreigners living in the land aren’t legally Jews, and Samaritans weren’t legally recognized as Jews because they had intermarried with the Assyrians.
The scribe was trying to trap Jesus: do you hold the cultural definition we have set up in the Torah schools, that loving your neighbor means loving the people of Israel only, or will you say that loving your neighbor applies to everyone? But Jesus always outsmarts His opponents when they bring Him trick questions meant to stir up controversy, and here He answers with the parable of the Good Samaritan.
The Man on the Road
And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
Luke 10:30
The man in the parable is a Jew living in Jerusalem, someone who would definitely be considered a neighbor by the religious leaders’ strict definition. He is traveling to Jericho, about 19 miles northeast of Jerusalem, on a dangerous route. Robbers regularly set ambushes along this road because of the valuable goods traveling on it, and religious leaders and traders alike knew the road well. Jericho was also a common place for religious leaders to spend the winter. Temple service ran in shifts, and many who had the winter shift off would travel to wealthy, comfortable Jericho during their sabbatical, so to speak.
This man is foolishly traveling alone. In that day you wanted to make the trip to Jericho in a caravan, or at least with some family, because a group of bandits would not hesitate to beat you up, stab you, and steal all your stuff. Some might even say that if he gets mugged going by himself, the man deserves it. He was an easy target. And as you’d expect, when the robbers saw him coming, they jumped out, took his goods, stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and left him to die. It was probably winter, so being left naked in the elements overnight could have killed him even if the blood loss didn’t.
The Priest and the Levite
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:31
“By chance” means it just so happened. This was no planned meeting and no divine appointment; it was just a priest walking down the road. From the culture of the time, the priest had likely just finished his service at the temple and was heading to Jericho to spend his winter season relaxing. He was in vacation mode. How many of us could say we’ve been in vacation mode, when we don’t want to stop and do something? Raise your hand. This priest is thinking, “I can’t wait to get to Jericho. Jericho has great food, it’s nice and warm, and it has all the comforts and none of the responsibilities. No one’s going to bother me there.”
And on his way, the priest sees the injured man bleeding on the side of the road, naked and exposed to the elements. What does the priest do? He wants nothing to do with the man. Notice the detail: the priest didn’t just pass the man by, he passed by on the other side. He saw the man dying on one side of the road and said, in effect, “Just in case I get too close to him, I’ll go to the other side of the road.”
I’ve often heard this excused, and I think I’ve said it myself: the priest didn’t want to defile himself, since touching a bleeding man who might die could have kept the priest outside the camp for seven days. That could have been part of the reason. And some pastors say he just wanted to get to his service at the temple. But he was traveling to a vacation spot. It really wouldn’t have mattered if the priest couldn’t work for seven days, because he wasn’t planning to work for a couple of months anyway. That excuse about defilement doesn’t hold up. And we can tell where he was headed from the text itself: it says the priest “came down,” and Jerusalem is a city on a hill, roughly 3,000 feet higher than Jericho. If the priest is going down, he’s not going to the temple. He’s going on vacation, and he says to himself, “My vacation time is more important than my service to God.”
The priest was supposed to be a religious leader, but when the time came to do his really important duties, he ignored those duties. The law of Moses said that even a brother’s animal left injured by the roadside had to be rescued:
In like manner shalt thou do with his ass; and so shalt thou do with his raiment; and with all lost things of thy brother’s, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise: thou mayest not hide thyself. Thou shalt not see thy brother’s ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again.
Deuteronomy 22:3–4
Anything of your brother’s that is lost, injured, or stuck in a rut on the side of the road, you go out of your way to save. If I’m supposed to save my brother’s donkey from death at the side of the road, then I should certainly save my brother. Just hours earlier the priest had been in the temple offering incense to God. He was a priest from the line of Aaron, the highest rank in the temple, responsible for performing the rituals of worship. But when it came to the most important things, the things nobody would ever see whether he obeyed or not, he decided the man was too much of an inconvenience and walked away from his responsibility.
And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:32
Now a lesser priest arrives, one not from the line of Aaron, responsible perhaps for singing or day-to-day temple maintenance and preparing things for the higher priests. A grunt worker, so to speak. Even the Levite decides, “I’m going to pass by this man. I’m not going to deal with this situation. I’m going on my sabbatical. I’m good,” and he walks on his way to Jericho.
The Samaritan
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Luke 10:33–35
Here is an unlikely individual, a Samaritan out of his own territory. By the religious leaders’ strict definition, he was not a neighbor: a Jew has no obligation to help a Samaritan and a Samaritan has none to help a Jew, since Jews and Samaritans live separate lives and don’t cross over. But rather than ignoring the problem, the Samaritan has compassion, and his compassion leads him to act. The Samaritan appears to be traveling alone, just like the man who was ambushed, so stopping to stabilize a man who is bleeding out meant a very real risk that the robbers would come back and take the Samaritan too.
The Samaritan disinfects the wounds with the wine he’s carrying, and pours on oil to reduce the swelling, keep contaminants out, and keep the bandages from sticking so the wound doesn’t reopen when the bandages are removed. Then he puts the injured man on the Samaritan’s own animal, the animal meant to make the Samaritan’s trip easier, and walks for miles until he reaches an inn where he can tend to the injured man better. The Samaritan doesn’t just leave the man at the inn; he stays the night caring for him. When he has to leave, he gives the innkeeper two full days’ wages, at least the equivalent of a couple hundred dollars, enough to cover about a week at the inn. That payment doesn’t cover the medical care, the changing of bandages, and the regular disinfecting. He says, take care of this man, whatever it costs, and keep him here until he can make it home safely. When I return from my business and travel back to Samaria, I will repay you whatever it costs to get the man back on his feet.
The Samaritan wasn’t in vacation mode. He was on business, probably a trader. But he says, “The trading can wait. The market can wait. The profit can wait.” Under any other circumstances, the injured man might not even have wanted to talk to a Samaritan. “I don’t know what the injured man’s political beliefs are about Israel and Samaria. I don’t know if he holds the same prejudice the scribes do. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I do the right thing for him as my neighbor.”
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Luke 10:36–37
Jesus flips the script on the whole question of “Who is my neighbor?” The scribe wanted Jesus to say that our neighbors are only those who look like us, act like us, and believe like us, those of the same culture and community. Instead, Jesus puts the scribe in a position where he has to say that the very person he excluded, the Samaritan, was the neighbor. The priest and the Levite, whom the lawyer would have assumed were the neighbors, didn’t act like neighbors at all; the only one who did was the Samaritan, the one the lawyer left out of consideration. The right question is not “Who is my neighbor?” The question Jesus wants us to ask is “Who can I become a neighbor to?”
Stop asking who your neighbor is, and go be a neighbor like the Samaritan. Don’t serve people you think deserve to be served; serve those who need to be served. It makes deciding a lot simpler when the main question is, “Does this person need me?” If so, then I need to go serve that person today. That is the first pillar of discipleship: serving others, going to those in need, helping and encouraging and caring for them, no matter what it costs us.
Pillar Two: Study
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Luke 10:38
The second pillar is study, or another way to say it, spending time with God. This story takes place in Bethany, a little over an hour’s walk from Jerusalem, at the home of Mary and Martha, the siblings of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead in the book of John. As Jesus and His disciples went around preaching town to town, they stopped in Bethany. Remember that Jesus told the seventy to rely on the kindness of strangers as they traveled; here Mary and Martha are those strangers. Martha, who owns the home, invites Jesus and His disciples to stay the night.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
Luke 10:39
Mary is a diligent student we are meant to imitate. To sit at someone’s feet meant, in that day, to sit as a student under a rabbi. Jesus was teaching her about morals and the kingdom of heaven, and she was sitting there taking notes on everything He taught while He stayed at her house. She wasn’t content just to hear what Jesus taught in the town meeting where He stood up and preached about the kingdom. Even in her own home, she was hungry to learn from Him.
But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
Luke 10:40
Then we meet a distracted busybody. Martha, on the other hand, was “cumbered.” Another way to translate “cumbered” is “distracted,” and the word is clearly negative, because there was something important she should have been paying attention to. With Jesus and the disciples in her house, she was so concerned with serving her guests, with so much to do and so much stress and anxiety about it, that she was completely distracted from the truth being taught in her own home. She became so frustrated that she confronted Jesus and asked Him to tell her sister to leave His lesson and help get the house ready for the guests. For Martha, serving the guests was more important than sitting down to learn from Jesus.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Luke 10:41–42
“Careful and troubled” could be translated “anxious and upset.” How many of us can say we’re anxious and upset sometimes? I should see some hands raised. If we get distracted by all the anxiety and the things that are bothering us, we’re a little like Martha, focused on the wrong thing. “One thing is needful” could be translated, “there’s one thing that is necessary.” There’s really only one necessary thing, and it’s not the thing you’re worried about.
There are two ways we can serve the Lord: physically and spiritually. Martha was worried about serving tables and making people comfortable, preparing dinner and making sure everyone had the bedding they needed. Serving tables and making people comfortable are nice, but they aren’t the most important thing. Picture a church fellowship where we’re preparing food for a big event and are so focused on the table decorations and the smoothness of operations that we miss what matters more: the Word of God. You can worry about the decorations all day long, but if you miss everything the Bible has to offer, you’ve ignored the most important thing. That is what Martha was doing, neglecting to learn what the Bible says, while Mary was focused on the spiritual. She wanted to know how to be more like her Lord.
Martha would have a nicely decorated dinner that night, but when Jesus left, there was no more reward for the decorated dinner. Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, learned what God’s Word says and could use that learning for the rest of her life. Knowing God’s Word was more necessary and longer lasting than the niceties of the day.
There’s a real temptation here, because both physical and spiritual service are important, but they’re not equally important. You can go through all the motions and obligations of service without your heart in it. Martha was doing what she should, but she wasn’t enjoying her service to God. Serving stressed Martha out, and she was serving out of obligation. As Christians, when we get into a routine of serving, we can get lost in it and become so worried about the presentation of unimportant things that we neglect what matters most. There are plenty of churches with all the nice things that neglect the Word of God, and when the service is over, you’ve got nothing lasting. As we serve the Lord, we need to give people eternal, valuable things, things that last beyond a moment, and not be distracted about making things look good but focused on having a true, passionate heart.
This passage invites believers to evaluate their lives for balance, making sure that active service for Christ comes from spiritual intimacy, not obligation. Our relationship with Christ is the foundation of any ministry. You can’t serve the Lord while being anxious, uncomfortable, and angry about it, so never serve in an area where your heart is not in it, because serving that way will only cause more harm than good. And we must not neglect the study of God’s Word. It’s good to serve, but if we serve at the cost of studying what the Bible says, what’s the point? We’re not growing ourselves; we’re trying to serve out of an empty bucket. We need to fill ourselves with the Word of God, continually studying, listening to the teachings of Jesus and the revelation of the Holy Spirit through His Word, so that we have what we need to serve properly.
Pillar Three: Supplication (Prayer)
And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Luke 11:1
So that’s study. Now we see that supplication, or prayer, is important for the Christian too. The disciples have left Mary and Martha’s home for a new location; we aren’t told where. The disciples have seen Jesus pray all the time and have seen God work through Jesus in great ways, so they ask, “Lord, we need to know how to pray. Teach us to pray like You.”
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
Luke 11:2–4
Here we have the Lord’s Prayer, a famous passage of Scripture. The Lord’s Prayer follows a specific model that teaches us to do five things when we pray.
1. Start with praise. “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name” could be translated, “Our Father, who is in heaven, may Your name be set apart.” Jesus says the first thing we should do is pray that God’s name means something both to us and to others: not a name among many, but one distinct from all other names. When people think of Jesus, may people not think of just another prophet, or just another Jesus or another Joshua, but of the Son of God, the God-man, King of kings and Lord of lords. So when we pray, we should lift up God and say, “Lord, in this world and in my life, may I never consider You just another part, but the most important thing to me and to others.”
2. Ask for the Father’s will. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth” could be translated, “Let Your kingdom come, and may Your desire also be done on earth just as it is in heaven.” We should pray that God’s desires be done, not our own or the world’s, and that the world would become just as heavenly as heaven itself. Wouldn’t that be nice, if we prayed that every day, and as we drove down the road, America was just as heavenly as heaven? It’s a big ask, but pray for earth to be a little more heavenly each day.
3. Pray for provision. “Give us day by day our daily bread” could be translated, “Give us with each day our daily bread.” We ask God to provide just enough for what we need, not a month’s supply of bread, and that request implies asking God to help us be content with what He’s given. Don’t desire excess or luxury; be content with God’s provision for you.
4. Pray for forgiveness and humility. “And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us” could be translated, “Forgive us of our sins, because we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.” Jesus’ prayer implies that you are already doing what God has called you to do in forgiving others. We should pray for God to forgive both our sins and our mistakes, and to help us forgive those who have wronged us.
5. Pray for victory over sin. “Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil” could be translated, “Do not bring us into temptation, but instead deliver us from the evil one.” We should pray to move away from sin, not toward it; to be removed from the devil’s temptations so that we are not led astray; to stay on the straight and narrow path without turning to the left or the right, and to focus on obedience to our Father in heaven.
God Answers
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.
Luke 11:5–8
Jesus wants to make it clear how willing God is to answer when you pray this way, and Jesus uses a friend to illustrate God’s willingness. A man has an unexpected guest arrive late at night and doesn’t have enough bread, because he didn’t know the guest was coming. The man knows his friend next door has extra bread, so he goes to the friend’s house in the middle of the night and asks for three loaves. Even if the friend says he isn’t going to give the bread because the friend’s kids are asleep (parents, you know how hard it is to get kids back to sleep), if the man keeps knocking for twenty minutes, then even a friend with no desire to get up will eventually, because of the inconvenience, give in and give him what he needs. If that’s how it works with a man, how does it work with God?
And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Luke 11:9–10
Jesus says, “Be like the man in the story.” When you have a need, knock on the door, and keep asking, and God will open it. Pray like Jesus prays, and your prayer will be answered every single time, no exceptions. If you pray for earth to be a little more heavenly, God will grant that prayer. So why aren’t we asking? If we need our daily bread and don’t have it, why aren’t we asking?
If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Luke 11:11–13
God is much better than the friend in the story. He is a Father, a perfect one, and a loving father would never withhold food from his son when the son needs it. No loving father whose son says, “I’m hungry, can I have an egg?” would hand him a snake or a scorpion as a prank. So if God is a perfect Father, why are we so afraid to ask Him for what we need? If you want to be a disciple and serve well, go to God and ask, “Help me serve well.” As a loving Father, God will say, “You want to serve? I will help you do that,” every single time. That means we have no excuse not to serve the Lord, because we can pray, and God will help us.
Three Pillars Working Together
These three pillars work together to shape us into faithful disciples of Christ. Through study, we learn God’s will. Through prayer, we draw closer to Him and depend on His strength. Through service, we put what we’ve learned into practice by showing His love to others. When we neglect one, the other two suffer.
Think about the examples we’ve looked at today. The religious leaders knew the Scriptures; they had spent their lives studying God’s law. But when someone needed their help, they failed to put what they knew into practice. The religious leaders had knowledge, but not service. Martha was eager to serve Jesus and worked hard to provide for Him, but she was so distracted by her service that she neglected the opportunity to sit at His feet and learn. Martha had the service but neglected the study. Even the disciples, who had followed Jesus, listened to His teaching, and served alongside Him, recognized something was still missing, and they came to Jesus and said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples were learning and serving, but they still needed to grow in prayer.
Faithful discipleship requires all three pillars. Study without service produces knowledge that is never put into practice. Service without study can become misguided, distracted, or completely disconnected from our relationship with God. And without prayer, we attempt to study and serve in our own strength rather than depending on God, and doing things in our own strength is not going to work.
So ask yourself today: which of these three pillars is weakest in my life? Am I studying God’s Word? Am I putting God’s Word into practice by serving others? Am I regularly seeking God in prayer? God doesn’t want us to be disciples who only know His Word, only serve Him, or only pray to Him. God wants us to be disciples who do all three. God wants you to strengthen your relationship with Him and others through service, study, and prayer. Dedicate yourself to strengthening these three pillars of faith today.
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