SERMON OUTLINE:
Why did Jesus speak in Parables?
Parable #1. The Sign Of Jonah (vs 29-30 & 32)
Parable #2. The Queen of The South (vs 31).
Parable #3: The Lamp of The Body (vs 33-36).
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• (1). A teacher tells this story in Readers Digest magazine.
• Performing Mozart should have been the highlight of my middle school chorus class.
• But after a few uninspired attempts, an exasperated student raised her hand and said,
• “Mrs. Willis, we want to sing music from our generation, not yours.”
• (2). A parent phoned her child’s school to complain,
• During a school swimming trip her child’s towel was stolen,
• The irate parent said,
• “What kind of young criminals are in class with my child?!”
• Calmly the teacher replied,
• “I’m sure it was taken accidentally, what does it look like?”
• The angry parent said.
• “It’s white, and it says Holiday Inn on it.”
• TRANSITION: Being a teacher is not always an easy thing!
• Whatever age group you are teaching, children, students, or adults!
Jesus never entered a classroom as we know a classroom.
• He never had a degree as we understand an educational degree,
• Yet Jesus was the master teacher, the great communicator.
• 2,000 years since he walked on planet earth,
• All around the world people are still teaching and studying and living by his words!
• Jesus taught in using many teaching styles.
• One of those styles was to use parables.
• And we read three of them in our Bible reading.
• Note: Jesus did not invent parabolic teaching,
• It was a Jewish way of learning, and many Rabbis taught this way,
• There are at least 29 parables in the Old Testament*.
• One of the best-known being, The Potter (Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1-10).
• *(Source: https://www.lookinguntojesus.info/BSTopics/Parables/PARABLES-OT.html#:~:text=29%20Old,Testament%20Parables ).
Question: Why did Jesus speak in Parables?
Answer: Let me suggest these reasons.
(1) To be interesting.
• We all like to hear stories,
• And we live personal stories because we are nosey!
• A preacher knows that when his congregation have had enough,
• A good story will recapture and hold their attention,
• The best communicators use stories, illustrations.
• To make facts and information more interesting.
• The parables of Jesus acted like windows.
• That let in the light and made clear difficult theological truths.
(2) To reveal new truth.
Ill:
• Our English word, ‘Para’ is actually a Greek word!
• It means, ‘alongside.’
• e.g. Parachute – is a chute alongside.
• e.g. Parallel lines – are one line alongside another.
• e.g. Para-Olympics is one event alongside another event.
• Jesus comparing spiritual truths with things already known.
• As people grasped the one many of his hearers also got the deeper meaning.
(3) To help the interested.
ill:
• If you enjoy baking or cooking, you will have at some time used a sieve.
• You put the flour in the sieve shake it,
• The fine flour (good) falls through and the lumps (the bad) gets stuck.
• TRANSITION: Jesus spoke in parables to sieve his audience.
• So that only those who were genuine and had a real desire to find him could.
• Jesus required that his listeners seek out the truth and not just casually look for it.
(4) To hinder the uninterested
• Those who came to Jesus for the wrong reasons,
• Who just wanted to see signs and miracles or be entertained.
• Never got the point in his parables.
• They heard a story about everyday life and left thinking, “What was all that about!”
• So, Jesus spoke in parables to sieve his audience.
• So that only those who were genuine, who had a real desire to find him could.
(5) To add even more truth.
• In the first parable that Jesus taught, ‘The parable of the Sower or four soils.’
• Jesus said in Matthew's account chapter 13 verse 12:
• "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance".
• Jesus is talking about insight into His message.
• The more we desire from a good heart the more God will give us.
Ill:
• Think about learning a foreign language.
• You learn so much in a classroom,
• But when you spend time living with a family who speak the language,
• Suddenly your langue skills really take off!
(6) To take away truth.
Matthew's account chapter 13 verse 12:
"Whoever does not have even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak in parables".
Ill:
• It is often said, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,”
