Good evening. After ending last week with looking at how we need to respond when God calls, I had to come up with a new idea and a new direction to go. With that said, for the next few months we are going to be looking at the way Jesus taught and preached to the people around Him.
Before we go on, I want each of you to write down on the back of this piece of paper as many of the parables that you can remember without looking in your Bible’s. I am going to start timing you and you have 3 minutes. Ready… Go!
Okay, now you have 1 minute from the time I say go that you can use your Bible’s. Ready…Go!
Okay, who came up with the most?
During His earthly ministry, as Jesus went around teaching and preaching, He frequently used what are called Parables. It has been estimated that at least 1/3 of Jesus’ recorded teachings are found in the form of a parable. Parables are often the best remembered sayings of Jesus. In fact, many of the stories that stick out in your mind from Jesus, are His parables.
That is why I think that it’s a good idea to take some time and look at some of His parables. But before we do that, we need to ask a few questions: Just what is a parable? Why did Jesus teach in parables? What are they about? And How should we interpret them?
With today’s lesson, we begin to study, “The Parables Of Jesus.” Tonight’s lesson will be more of an introduction to the parables, and the next few months we will be looking at some of the parables that Jesus used. Now we won’t be able to look at all of them, but we will examine about 18-20 of the parables that He used in His teaching.
Now, with that introduction, before we move on, let’s open with a word of prayer.
First, Let’s Define What A Parable Is. Before I tell you what I have come up with, what do you think a parable is?
Well, I would like to share a few definitions that I found for the word “parable.” First, from the Greek dictionary. In Greek, the word parable means, “to place beside, to cast alongside.” Then in the Webster’s Dictionary it states that a parable is a short, fictitious story that illustrates a moral lesson.
I think that the best definition for the word parable would be, “An earthly story that has a heavenly meaning.” It is meant to be a story that will help you to picture something and see the importance of a heavenly value.
So, a parable puts the unknown next to the known so that we may learn. The whole purpose of a parable is to make it easier to see and learn something that we don’t already know, or that is harder to understand. What Jesus did throughout His ministry is that He caused people to picture in their heads something familiar in order to compare it or relate it to a spiritual lesson.
As used in the New Testament, a parable is usually a story drawn from nature or human circumstances, from which a spiritual lesson can be made through comparison. The definition that I liked the most and that I shared is not my own idea, but rather it is a well-known definition of the word parable. So remember that a parable is nothing more than an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
Jesus used common things to teach uncommon ideas, and He used limited things in a way that He could teach eternal truths. So there is what a parable is, now let’s look at The Purpose Of The Parables.
We defined what a parable was, and how it was used, but Why did Jesus use parables?
Well, what would you say if I said that one of the reasons that Jesus spoke in parables was to hide His message from others? It may be hard to believe, but one of the primary purposes of Jesus’ parables was to conceal His message.
Turn with me to Matthew 13:10-13 and hold that spot for a second. Throughout scripture we find that Jesus spoke in parables because of the hardness of many people’s hearts. Here in Matthew 13:10-13 it says, “1”
You see, He did this as a way to hide what He was talking about, and to teach the disciples and those who would take it serious and wanted to learn from Him. Then later, if you read in Mark 4:33-34, Jesus would later explain the parables in private to His disciples. Here in Mark 4:33-34 it says, “2”
So by using parables, Jesus effectively separated the truth seekers from the curiosity seekers. You see, Jesus didn’t force people to listen to Him and believe in it. The point of a parable is that it requires the listener to question further. They have to do more than just listen in order to understand and learn the lesson. A teacher will teach, but the learner must still accept the teaching and search out the meaning. So the parables helped to conceal the message for those that were serious about it and not just curious.
But another purpose of parables was to reveal the message. Now you may be like I am, asking how can a parable conceal something and reveal it at the same time. Well, even though the primary reason for parables was to conceal the message from the multitude, once the disciples understood the basic meaning of the parables, they were able to understand many of the deep truths that Jesus had to share with them.
In Matthew 13:34-35 it says, “3”
You see, even in the fact that He was speaking in parables, He was able to fulfill the tings that had been predicted of Him. So the other purpose of the parable was to help those who really wanted to hear and to know more.
Now, we have looked at what a parable is, and what Jesus’ purpose was in using parables, now we move to take a look at The Subject Matter Of The Parables. Are there any themes that you have noticed in the parables that you have read?
Well, the general theme of the parables of Christ is the Kingdom Of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God which means the same thing. We already looked at Matthew 13:11 when it said, “…It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven…”
In fact, many of the parables start with the words, “The kingdom of heaven is like…” So, the general theme of the parables is focused on what the kingdom of heaven is like, and what those associated with the kingdom should be. And by the way, the kingdom is God’s people doing God’s will. So this parable stuff applies to us today as well.
Now there are also 3 sub themes stressed throughout the parables as well. First there is the character of the kingdom. These are the parables that tell us what the kingdom is like. Second, there is the character of the king. These are the parables that focus on the master and the father. These parables tell us what the personality of the king is, and how he acts.
And third, there is the character of the king’s subjects. These parables focus in on what his people would be like, and who is in his kingdom. And as we said earlier, these parables are especially applicable to us still today because they tell us how we should live.
And finally tonight, I want to look at The Interpretation Of The Parables. Now, when interpreting the parables, there are 2 extremes to avoid. One is trying to find some spiritual truth in ever little detail of the story, and the other is to say that there is only 1 spiritual truth in each parable.
Why do you think that these 2 extremes could be bad in interpreting the parables? (Everything is spiritual vs. only 1 spiritual things per parable)
When we read the parables, we need to read them like it was a letter written personally to us. When we approach scripture in that way, we can get the most out of it.
Real quick, some guidelines for proper interpretation of scripture would be to learn from the explanations that Jesus Himself gave. He usually gives enough explanation to where you can get the main idea of what He was trying to teach.
Also look for the central truth of the parable, and make sure that any other truths gleaned from the story are in harmony with the main theme.
It would make no sense for us to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan and say that we should hate the people that passed by the man in the ditch, when the main point is that no matter who they are, we need to be kind and helpful to all. So look for the main point of the parable and make sure that any other applications go together with the main one.
We also need to consider carefully the context of Jesus’ words. We can’t miss the point of the parable by focusing on the wrong things. Look at the text and find out what the context is, why He is saying what He is saying, and to whom is He saying it. Know the passage before drawing any conclusions about what the passage is about.
By following these few simple guidelines to interpreting the parables, we can understand more fully the truths of the Kingdom Of Heaven. It’s neat that the more we mature in Christ, and then re-read passages of scripture, and even the parables, the more we can learn. We talked for the last few weeks about how we noticed some new things in the story of Abraham and Isaac, and that is a very familiar scripture, yet as we mature and read over it time and time again, new things stick out and we learn new truths.
Look at the back of that paper at the number of parables that you could think of. Hopefully at the end of the next few months we can enlarge that list, but more importantly have a better understanding of all of the parables we look at.
We need to make sure that we are prepared to learn from the parables, otherwise we will be like the people that the parables were concealed from. You see, Jesus can teach us through these parables yet today, the question is, “Can we learn.” Let’s Pray |
