Luke 10: The Missionary Call Starts with the Heart

Introduction

"I don't believe in throwaway Sundays." Kevin Vandeput, preacher at Kingdom Faith Church in the United Kingdom, places this message in a series about what it means to "be the Church." The previous weeks spoke about God's heart for all nations and about love for those around us. Every Sunday, he says, is one more stone on the path where God is leading his Church, with one purpose: to grow together spiritually, relationally and missionally.

That day, the theme is the missionary calling of the Church. To illustrate it, the preacher does not choose a strategy text, but a story many people know by heart: the parable of the good Samaritan, in Luke 10.

Behind the familiar story, he asks an uncomfortable question: who are you walking past without even looking up? And he concludes that everything begins with one thing: the transformation of the heart.

Outline of the message

1. A Church called to the mission

Kevin Vandeput starts from the great commission: "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20).
He has the congregation repeat three times the first word of the verse in English ("Therefore"). This mission, the Father has entrusted to his Church, and each person is called to take part in it.
The question then becomes practical: what does this mission look like day to day? To answer it, he suggests reading Luke 10:25-37 together, whether we have known the text forever or are discovering it.

2. A trick question, an answer about salvation

An expert in the law stands up to test Jesus: "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He is not a lawyer in the modern sense, the preacher explains, but an expert in the religious law, and his intentions are not good.
Jesus nevertheless seizes the opportunity to teach. The answer is in the law: to love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
"But he, desiring to justify himself, asked Jesus, 'Who is my neighbor?'" The parable that follows therefore answers a question about salvation. Kevin Vandeput also sees a lesson in personal evangelism here: Jesus is speaking one on one with this man.

3. The priest and the Levite: good excuses

A man goes down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robbers strip him, beat him and leave him half dead. He cannot possibly save himself.
A priest passes by, then a Levite. Why these two? Because, in everyone's mind, they are the most likely to stop. They know the law, which speaks of helping those in need, of loving God and loving others. They should be people of compassion. Yet they pass by on the other side.
One could plead their case: alone, what could they do? The road was known for its violence, and stopping meant risking your life. There were also the rules of ritual purity, the lack of time, the fear of an ambush, or the idea that someone else would take care of it.
The text does not say why they did not stop: those are only guesses. What matters is that they should have stopped and did not. "If we are not careful, we can quickly become like them": seeing someone who is broken, unable to save himself, and walking on with a reasonable excuse.

4. The Samaritan: redefining who my neighbor is

Then onto the scene comes the one from whom nobody expects anything good. Jews and Samaritans have a heavy history: the people of Samaria had intermarried with foreigners and adopted idolatrous practices. Samaritans were despised.
The expert in the law was not asking "how can I love better?" but "where does my responsibility end?" Jesus turns the question around: whose neighbor have you been? To whom can you show a sacrificial love that goes beyond what is expected?
The preacher first applies the question to himself: where do I subtly draw boundaries around those who deserve my love? "They should know," "it's not my responsibility," "he hurt me in the past"... It is easy to love only those we naturally love.
Jesus had already pushed back these boundaries a few chapters earlier: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you" (Luke 6:27-28).

5. He saw, he was moved, he acted

First, the Samaritan notices. On this narrow road between two cities, the priest and the Levite had seen him too. But he does not stop there.
He is "moved with compassion" (Luke 10:33). "It is one thing to notice something. It is another to let it touch us."
Kevin Vandeput takes up the dictionary definition: compassion is a deep feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering, accompanied by a strong desire to act to help. It is this compassion that sets the Samaritan in motion.
He bandages the wounds, pouring on oil and wine, the best remedy he knew. He gives what he has on him.

6. What compassion cost him

He puts the man on his own animal, which means he makes the rest of the journey on foot: comfort goes out the window. He takes him to an inn, takes care of him, then gives two denarii to the innkeeper so that he can continue until the man is fully healed.
The preacher says he has not checked it himself, but he has read that two denarii could cover about two months at the inn. The Samaritan does not pay for one night, he plans for the duration.
The bottom line is clear: this decision cost him time, his possessions, his comfort and his money. He risked becoming a victim himself by staying there. And all of this for a stranger, most likely a Jew, and therefore an enemy.
"Isn't this what God calls us to do?" Love for the broken, for the one who is helpless, for the one who is lost.

7. Jesus, the true good Samaritan, and the Church as the inn

"You and I were once without hope, too." We were the ones who could neither help ourselves nor save ourselves. The one who embodied this love and gave his life so that we might live is Jesus. He bandaged our wounds, he restored us.
Kevin Vandeput quotes Charles Spurgeon: "In his infinite love, he has not abandoned us, but has brought us into the Church, where we rest as in an inn, fed with what his goodness has provided. It is a wonderful love that moved the heart of the Savior: when he found us in our misery, he bent down to lift us out of it, knowing full well that we were his enemies."
It is Jesus who saves, by his Spirit. But he then leads the wounded and those who are getting back on their feet into his Church. Here we are in the role of the innkeeper: he entrusts them to us.
"We are not converts, nor churchgoers, nor simply religious people. We are called to be disciples." A disciple models his life on the one who trains him, and Jesus gave his life so that we might have life.
The preacher admits that the message challenges him as much as the congregation: how many people does he pass without asking the Holy Spirit what is going on around him? The Church is the means God has established for his kingdom to grow on the earth. "Don't let the great commission become the great omission."

8. From the message to the street: the conversation starts with the heart

This is not something we do in our own strength. The Spirit who lives in us is a Spirit of love, and he is the one who produces that love through us.
The Church uses a tool called "Jesus at the door": a simple card that helps share the Gospel in a clear and understandable way, so that people can respond. "Leaders go first": in recent weeks, the preacher has gone out with this card to start conversations.
He then discovered that the parable became very concrete. We rarely meet someone half dead by the roadside, but many people have been "beaten up by life." You hear stories, wounds, questions, and something stirs inside: it is the Spirit who wants to see them saved and restored. "This is not the end. It is the beginning of the turnaround."
It is not limited to the street: friends, colleagues, neighbors, cashiers, the gym, the hairdresser... Everything starts with a simple conversation. "But before the conversation, there must be a transformation of the heart. Otherwise, I will keep walking past people without even noticing what is happening."

9. Be neither the priest nor the Levite

First answer: do not be the priest or the Levite. That means each person has the responsibility to notice and to have compassion. Reasonable excuses must be brought to the Lord: "Maybe I'm not so busy. Maybe I can find half an hour, or call that friend from ten years ago."
"The priest and the Levite had been close to God, but they did not look like him." You can come every week, pray, read your Bible, and never carry the heart of God.
So we must count the cost: the mission entrusted to us is neither cheap nor easy. But our answer can be: "Lord, whatever the cost, I am ready." The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10): "Lord, make me someone who seeks. Show me those who are broken."
And here is the punchline: "God always gives the grace for what he asks of us." Grace is not limited to forgiveness, it enables us and propels us into God's purposes. The preacher quotes the evangelist Reinhard Bonnke: "Plunder hell to populate heaven, for the love of Calvary."
The Holy Spirit was not given to us to have a good time at church, but to lay hands on the sick, drive out demons, and see people set free, saved and trained as disciples. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria (Acts 1:8): "Your Jerusalem is right behind that door."
In the closing prayer, he refuses an abstract love: "I love my nation, I love my neighborhood," no. Do you love your neighbor who never parks properly? The one who brushed you off last week when you spoke to him about Jesus? He prays that the Church would be strong and courageous, like Joshua (Joshua 1:9), and for a renewed baptism of love.
He ends with an invitation: Jesus knocks at the door of the heart (Revelation 3:20), he who paid the price for those who could not save themselves. And he concludes: "As for me and my house, we will serve Yahweh" (Joshua 24:15).

Key takeaways

The parable of the good Samaritan answers a question about salvation: loving God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves.
You can be close to God without looking like him. The priest's and the Levite's good excuses are ours too.
Compassion goes further than seeing: it lets itself be touched and moves into action, at the cost of time, comfort and money.
Jesus is the true good Samaritan: he lifted us up when we were helpless, and he entrusts those he saves to his Church.
Before the conversation, there must be the transformation of the heart. And God always gives the grace for what he asks.

Personal application

Around whom have you drawn, without saying so, a limit to your love: "it's not my responsibility," "he should know"?
What reasonable excuse makes you walk past others right now: time, fear, your schedule?
Who in your circle (colleague, neighbor, friend you lost touch with) has been "beaten up by life" and is perhaps waiting for a simple conversation?
What concrete price are you ready to pay this week: half an hour, a phone call, a meal, a gesture?
Do you dare to pray: "Lord, change my heart, open my eyes and show me those who need you"?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does Jesus include a priest and a Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan?

Because, in everyone's eyes at the time, they were the people most likely to stop. They knew the law, which speaks of loving God, loving others and helping those in need. Yet they pass by. For Kevin Vandeput, their tragedy is having been close to God without looking like him.

What is compassion according to the parable of the good Samaritan?

The Samaritan does not merely see the wounded man: he is moved with compassion (Luke 10:33). Kevin Vandeput takes up the dictionary definition: a deep feeling of sympathy for someone who is suffering, accompanied by a strong desire to act to help. Noticing is one thing, letting yourself be touched is another.

What is the link between the good Samaritan and the great commission of Matthew 28?

The expert in the law's question is about salvation, and Jesus answers it with a story of concrete love. For the preacher, the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20) is lived out the same way: noticing those who suffer, letting yourself be moved and accepting the cost, counting on the Holy Spirit who gives the grace to do what God asks.