(Part 1)
“When he was alone, the Twelve and the others
around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the
kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is
said in parables so that, “They are ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever
hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”
Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you
understand any parable?”-Mark 4:9-12.
The
teachings of Jesus were a foundational part of His life and ministry; as Jesus
did not teach simply to educate minds but rather he taught to transform lives. For
better understanding and application we have broken down his teachings into
three segments: The Sermon on the Mount, The Parables, and The Olivet
Discourse. Last week we completed our overview of the Sermon on the Mount where
Jesus taught regarding the attitudes and actions that should characterize a
follower of Christ. This week we will be looking at Jesus and the parables.
What
is a parable? A Bible parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or
spiritual lesson.
It
was prophesied long before the coming of Jesus that God would use parables to
speak to His people:
“O my
people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my
mouths in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from old-what we have
heard and known, what our fathers have told us.”- Psalm 78:1-3
This
passage was fulfilled in Christ according to Matthew 13:34-35:
“Jesus spoke all these things
to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a
parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my
mouth in parable3s, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the
world.”
Jesus
spoke so extensively in parables; with over 30 parables recorded throughout the
gospels, his disciples began to question why he used them so often:
“He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of
God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in
parables so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever
hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be
forgiven!”-Mark 4:11-12.
Jesus’
answer may sound confusing, but a careful reading unearths this modest truth:
Those who love truth will understand the parable and those who do not love
truth will not understand the parable.
Every
parable has a significant truth associated with it and God intends for us to
learn them and apply them to our lives. However, with so many parables it would
take too long to study every one recorded in Scripture; but we can take time to
breakdown and study one parable that has become known as the “parable of all
parables” (the Parable of the Sower).
Pastor
Scott Burr
Dayspring
Community Church
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