Purpose of the Parables

Launching the Parables series

Good morning, everybody. So we’re starting a new series on parables. Come on now, let me hear some hoopla here. Yeah. So we’re excited, and Patty and I get to unpack today the purpose of parables.

Most scholars would agree that in the Gospels there are approximately 35 to 40 parables that Jesus teaches on. And I’m sure if I were to point to any one of you, you could probably name two or three off the top of your head, unless you’re Alf. Alf probably knows all 35, and he told me to go talk to him after the service, he’ll list them chronologically for you. He’s that good.

So the question is, why did Jesus speak in parables? I mean, wouldn’t it have been far easier for him to just be direct and say, “This is how the kingdom of God is, and this is what I see you doing, you fall in line”? No. That wasn’t the idea behind it. He spoke in parables to relay a message, but he was relaying it to those who want to seek it out, to want to understand and actively listen to what he was trying to say. So yeah, there was a purpose behind each one.

I’d like to dive into some scripture as we get started here. The text I grabbed was from the book of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 10 through 17. I’m reading from the New Living Translation.

“His disciples came and asked him, ‘Jesus, why do you always tell stories when you talk to the people?’ And then he explained to them, ‘You have been permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but others have not. And to those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them. That is why I tell these stories, because people see what I do but they don’t really see. They hear what I say but they don’t really hear and they don’t understand. So this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah, which says, “You will hear my words but you will not understand. You will see what I do but you will not perceive its meaning. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes, so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand. So they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.” But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. I assure you, many prophets and godly people have longed to see and hear what you’ve seen and heard, but they could not.'”

Who was in the crowd

Wherever Jesus went during his ministry, there were huge crowds that would follow him, and he would draw people from all over the countryside. So you can imagine, through all these people, there would be people from many walks of life. I just want to unpack that for a minute.

There would be his followers, his disciples, but more than just his disciples. There would be people who were following his teachings. They were hungry. They saw what he was doing, all these beautiful, wonderful miracles, and they were listening and saying, “Wow, this guy has some amazing things he’s sharing about the kingdom of God, I want more.” So they’re actively listening to what he has to teach.

Then there were probably those who were there more out of curiosity. Can you imagine, if in that time you’re living in some town, you’ve never heard about Jesus, and your friend, let’s call him Billy Bob, has had these T-Rex arms his whole life. And one day he comes strolling in and his arms are all healed up, and they’re like, “Whoa, Billy Bob, what happened to your arm?” And he goes, “There’s this Jesus guy over the hill and yonder, he’s healing people.” So they’re like, “Come on, let’s check him out.” They actually want to see, now they’ve got this curiosity, what’s he doing, I want to see what he’s doing. So they’re there because maybe they need healing, maybe they wanted something, but they’re not really listening. When Jesus starts talking, they’re like, “Okay yeah, he has a message too, but I was here for the show, I don’t really need to hear the message.” So they’re not allowing it to sit in their hearts. They just hear it, but it goes right over their head. Maybe they want to get fed, like he fed 5,000 people, you guys heard about that? Maybe they want to get fed.

And then there were the religious leaders, the Pharisees. You know them. They were there because this Jesus guy seemingly came out of nowhere. He didn’t grow up in their staunch religious circumstances, he wasn’t in the synagogue all the time. And they had this attitude of “we know the law, we are the ones who hold the authority over this, and who are you?” So they are there and they’re listening, but they’re listening to catch him. They want to catch this guy doing something wrong, but they’re not actually listening to what the word was and how Jesus was presenting it.

So Jesus spoke in a way that was in stories, little hidden stories, and there’s truths in them. But he wanted the people to examine it, listen closely, and start to mine it out, so his followers would ask him questions like, “Well, why, Jesus, why?” And he would surely give them the answer for it. So as we can tell, each group of people had a different heart condition.

The parable of the sower

It’s fitting that the parable right before this one was the parable of the sower. I don’t want to give it all away because my man John B is going to be preaching on this shortly, but we see four different conditions of soil. You’ve got the footpath, the hardened ground. Then you have the shallow soil, so the seed can get in but there are rocks so it can’t really penetrate. Then there’s the thistles, some soil there but there’s stuff growing all around it. And then the fertile soil. These all point to the condition of the heart, and Jesus is explaining that these are different ways people are in life.

And the best part is, with every parable he presents to us, there’s an invitation behind it. It’s not that he just leaves us hanging there and says, “You have a hardened heart, and yours you’ve got thorns.” He’s saying, “No, no, no, there’s a different way to live, there’s a better way, and we want you to be fertile.” There’s times in my life I can look at each of these types of soil and identify with each one. But he never left me there. I may have started with a hardened heart, but he didn’t leave me at a hardened heart. He softened it through time, through circumstances, and through his love. I’m still a work in progress, but I tell you, I love to be that fertile soil. Give me more, Lord, give me more of your seed.

So what he likes to do is paint a picture for us of what a life with God is like in a lot of his parables, and he also paints a picture of what it can be like without. And in the midst of all that, he quietly asks us, “Do you want this? Where are you?”

The hidden treasure

I’m just going to mention the hidden treasure parable. This man finds this treasure in a field. He unearths it, whoa, treasure. He buries it, runs back home, and sells everything that he has because he wants to purchase this field. And the invitation isn’t about just the cost, what it cost him, because God doesn’t want us to focus on the cost. It’s more of an exchange. He wants to say, “What are you focused on? What’s so important to you? Is it all the stuff you’re holding on to? Because this treasure that I have is far greater than any treasure you could ever amass here on earth.” So the invitation was to let go of your stuff, come and grab hold of what truly satisfies in his kingdom.

The prodigal son

Another example could be the prodigal son. Everybody knows this one, right? The man lives probably in some luxurious estate, and finally he’s just done with where he’s at. He’s like, “I don’t want this anymore, I don’t want anything to do with you, father. Give me half my inheritance and I’m gone.” And so the father does, gives him his inheritance, and he goes and spends it on wild parties and, I don’t know, an iPhone or something. He just blows his money and he’s got nothing.

He comes back broken, knowing the only place that actually brought him security was the father. He’s hesitant, but he does go home anyway, thinking that maybe if he crawls back, the father will accept him. But when the father sees him, he doesn’t just wait for him to come. The father runs to him. The father runs to him and says, “I love you, you’re welcome back, I’m going to throw a feast for you.” Because God says, you don’t earn your place in his kingdom. You don’t have to earn it. “I freely love you and give you,” but that love invites a response. The invitation is for that transaction to take place.

What every parable does

Parables are meant to provoke us into deeper thought or self-examination of who we are and where we stand. And every parable Jesus tells does three things for us. It reveals what God is like. It exposes what we are like. And it invites us into a better way of living. The parables were never meant to hide truths from us. They were meant for us to dig a little deeper, and the question is, are we willing to receive it?

As we start this new series on parables, I want to invite all of us, as each person comes up and shares over the weeks, to look a little closer. Engage with each story we share with you. Ask the Holy Spirit to come along with you and examine your heart. Where do I stand, Father? Am I open to this? Am I closed, Lord? Am I holding on to something I shouldn’t be holding on to? Help me release it to you. We’re never meant to be just observers in his kingdom. We’re meant to participate.

Patti: a shared word

Before I get started, I actually just want to point something out. We’re heading into a change here at the River, where Alf and Pam are going to be stepping back from the senior role, and we are going to be working together as a lead team, following the father.

I want to share something with you this morning. Nolan and I didn’t talk about our message. We didn’t compare notes. We didn’t share anything. We connected with the Father, and he gave us almost exactly the same thing. That’s what I want to share with you guys. That’s our heart as a leadership team, that we would be following him and receiving from him to be able to share with you. So be encouraged that we are hearing the Father speak, because we want to, and you can hear him speak too.

Now I’m going to get started. We’re talking about the parables of Jesus over this next couple of months, and it’s going to be so exciting. We’ve been talking amongst the team about who’s going to speak on what, and it’s really, come with excitement, because it’s going to be amazing. But today’s message is actually setting the foundation for what’s coming up. Nolan and I were both talking about the purpose of the parables of Jesus, and my hope is that today the messages you hear would set you up to seek, to hunger, to desire the knowledge and the wisdom that the Father has for us, that we would be the ones this passage talks about, blessed to see and hear and know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

Patti reads Matthew 13 again

Let’s turn again to Matthew 13, verses 10 through 17. This is repetition, we’re going to make it happen.

“His disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?’ And he replied, ‘You are permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have, it will be taken away from them. That’s why I use these parables, for they look but they don’t really see. They hear but they don’t really listen or understand. This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, “When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, for they have closed their eyes, so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me, and let me heal them.” But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it, and they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.'”

Parables are used to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus used parables to invite people into relationship, where understanding flows from connection, from connectedness, from relationship with him. Parables reveal truth to those who lean in.

Did you know that relational hunger matters? If you come to church and you sit here, that’s nice, well, you might get something or you might not. But if you come hungering and desiring, it’s like you can meet somebody on a street and say, “Hello, nice to meet you.” If you lean in and ask questions, talk, spend time, you will get so much more out of the relationship than if it’s just a “hey, how’s it going” and on your way.

So in Matthew 13:10, they’ve just heard a parable, and the disciples, in this big crowd Nolan talked about, all the different people in the crowd, the disciples come to Jesus, they come towards him, and they say, “Why? Why do you do this? Why do you speak in parables?” We start this section with a key: the disciples move towards Jesus. They get curious. They want to know. They want to understand. And Jesus responds by saying, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom has been given to you, the disciples, the believers, us believers, we have been given that knowledge.”

In Proverbs 18:15 it says, “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.” There’s something about seeking for something, about pursuing relationship, pursuing understanding, pursuing knowledge. James 1:5 says, “If you ask for wisdom, God will give it to you. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God and he will give it to you.” He’s not going to say, “Hey, dummy, why are you asking me this?” He says, “If you ask, I’m going to give it to you because I’m a good father.”

It’s not about being intelligent and having all the answers or knowledge. It’s about the relationship. It’s about the connectedness. It’s about being close. The disciples didn’t just hear the stories, they stayed close enough to ask questions. They got curious. Parables reward those who are willing to engage relationally.

Parables protect relationship

Parables protect relationship by filtering out hardness. Not everyone wants to be close, and we see that in our everyday lives. We come across people and we know they’re keeping us at a distance for whatever reason. The secrets of the kingdom of heaven are that God sent his Son so that you would have life with him forever. The secrets of his kingdom are all about being in relationship with him. What happens when we’re in relationship with him, when we know who we are in that relationship, that’s what it’s all about.

In Mark 4:10-12 we get the disciple Mark’s view of this same story, where the disciples lean in to ask questions and Jesus explains the same thing. Jesus doesn’t force himself on you. What kind of a relationship is it if you are forcing yourself on someone? Have you ever had somebody who’s a little pushy in a relationship? Your tendency is to step back.

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me and open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and we will share a meal together as friends.” If you open your heart to him, he will have that relationship and closeness with you. That’s what he wants. He’s available for that. He desires that. But parables actually create a safe distance for those who aren’t ready for that intimacy, while still offering the truth.

Not everyone is ready or willing for that relational closeness and intimacy. Are you? God honors the condition of our hearts, and he doesn’t override our will. There were many religious leaders, teachers, scholars who wanted to learn about God, and they had spent years in the pursuit of that knowledge, but they weren’t ready for relationship. They weren’t ready for intimacy. As much as they wanted the knowledge, their hearts were hard towards the truth of who God was. Love doesn’t force intimacy. Love invites, and it responds. It’s both sides. Parables invite closeness and connection, they invite intimacy, but it’s the people’s hearts that determine how hard or how far they press into that relationship and ultimately get the understanding.

And that brings us to the next point: understanding grows through relationship, not just information. This same story is also repeated in Luke, Luke 8:9-10. Again, Jesus shares the same parable, the disciples get curious, and Jesus explains it to them. Revelation comes in conversation with Jesus. The crowds get stories, but in their time together communicating, building relationship, the disciples get the understanding, they get to know him.

Are we pursuing those times of connection and communication with Jesus on our own? Are we sitting at his feet and asking him to explain things to us? You can do that. Are you being intentional about understanding what he’s saying, or are we just taking it for granted and hearing some nice stories? What’s our heart’s position when we spend our own personal time with Jesus, when we come to church?

Knowing the mysteries of God’s kingdom is not just about hearing. It’s about walking with him. It’s about relationship. Insight and understanding is not a download, it’s a byproduct of relationship. How much more do you know and understand something when you live it out, when you walk it out? I can know how to use an iPhone, but unless I actually get into it and start using it with familiarity, I’m not going to get the full extent out of it. That’s a very poor cross example, but the more time and energy and intimacy that we have with the Father, the more our understanding and knowledge of who we are and who he is will grow. The more you walk with him and talk with him and listen to him and build relationship with him, the more things in the Bible, in his word, will make sense.

Parables show us what God and the kingdom are like. He’s not hiding from us. In fact, he’s drawing us in. Parables invite us to pursue relationship. They honor his heart, which is not to force anything onto us, and they allow for a deepening of the relationship if that’s what we want. Jesus came to bring us close to the Father. Parables aren’t barriers, they are the doorway. And the key to that doorway has always been relationship.

Altar call and close

Jesus is standing at the door and knocking. Will you invite him into relationship with you and have the mysteries, the treasures of the kingdom, revealed to you? Can we all stand?

So if there’s anything about these two messages that were spoken today that resonated with you, if there’s some place in you where you are maybe not pressing into relationship, or you don’t understand and you want a greater revelation of who the Father is and what his mysteries are, if you hunger, if you want to hunger more, I am going to ask you guys to come up and get some prayer. Can I get the prayer team to come up? We have time, it’s 11:15, there’s time for you to come and simply say, “I’m up here because I want to hunger more, and I’m going to step out and actually take a physical action to show my commitment.” That’s what today is all about.

If that’s you, if that’s what you want, “Father, I want to hunger more. Father, I want to be excited more. Father, I want more understanding and intimacy with you,” then I’m going to invite you to come up right now.

Father, we thank you for today. Thank you for the way that you speak. Thank you for how much you love us and how much you desire intimacy and connectedness with us. Father, would you spark that hunger in us today? We thank you so much for who you are and how much you love us. Amen.