The Cost of Discipleship
Principles of the Parables • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Introduction:
Jesus Christ spoke to His people through parables.
Parables are short stories that are meant to teach moral principe.
“Parable” comes from the Greek word “παραβολή”:
A story or saying that illustrates a truth using comparison, hyperbole, or simile.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Parables in the Gospels
A central feature of Jesus’ teaching was His use of extended similes and short stories to express spiritual truths.
In fact, over one-third of Jesus’ instruction was done by parables.
One point of warning that the one who is studying the Scriptures and studying the parables is to be careful not to allegorize what Jesus says in the parables.
This has been the tendency for some throughout the history of the Church.
Fir example, the Theologian Origen (AD 185-254) assigned a “picture” to each detail of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
According to Origen, the Samaritan represented Christ, the man going to Jericho was Adam, the inn was the Church, and the woulds that the man suffered stood for sin.
The problem is that such allegorizing makes for “good preaching” among the less discerning, but it does make for good Bible interpretation.
During the time of the Reformation, Luther and Calvin argued, as I would, against an allegorical interpretation of the parables by rejecting each detail to a metaphorical concept of symbol.
And that is something that we will be very careful not to so as we study these Principles of the Parables.
Listen, the Bible is a literal book and it has literal meanings.
And once you start to place into these parables, allegorical meanings and not literal meanings, the ending of that process seems endless.
Now, that is not to say that there are not those times when their is an obvious representation.
For example in the story of the “Lost Son,” it is obvious that the Father represents Christ and the prodigal son represents the repenting sinner and, I believe, that it is pretty clear that the older son represents the Pharisees.
But those things that are obvious representations are different than ascribing to everything some kind of allegorical representation to everything; if which we must be careful.
Why Jesus Spoke in Parables?
Why Jesus Spoke in Parables?
Why did Jesus chose to use short stories like He did rather than just come right out with what He wanted to say?
To answer this question, you have understand the time and the situations in which Jesus ministered.
Matthew introduces the turning point in Jesus’ public ministry by recounting a series of very public conflicts provoked by Jewish religious leaders who were desperate to discredit Christ.
The main fight that they had to do with the proper observation of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees, as you remember, fancied themselves as specialists and law-enforcement officers when it came to strict observance of the Sabbath.
The Pharisees original rationale may have been to avoid careless or accidental infraction of the Sabbath.
Whatever was their original intent, they had turned the Sabbath Day into an oppressive inconvenience.
Worse yet, their rigid system became a point of immense pride to them and a weapon that they used against other people.
The day of “rest” had become one of the most troublesome ordeals in a long list of “heavy burdens, hard to bear,” that the Pharisees were determined to lay on people’s shoulders.
For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
Sabbath observance was never meant to be a burden on the people. it was meant to be the exact opposite.
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
It was meant to be a respite for a weary people and instead the Pharisees made the people more weary.
And as you study the gospels, there are a plethora of instances where Jesus came into conflict with the Pharisees over healing on the Sabbath.
Matthew 12 begins with a major confrontation provoked by a Pharisaical Sabbath- Enforcement squad.
The disciples were hungry and had plucked some heads of grain to eat while walking through a field of wheat or barely on the Sabbath.
At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
According to the Pharisees’ rules, even casual plucking a handful of grain was a form of gleaning, and therefore it is work.
Jesus replies rathe pointedly to their hypocritical regulations.
For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
The Pharisee were infuriated but they were not through challenging Jesus about the Sabbath.
And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.
The Pharisees were there and in an attempted to escalate the situation with the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees said:
And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
Jesus, once again, unmasks their hypocrisy.
And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him.
And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?
Some rabbis taught, in matter of life and death, it was permissible to work on the Sabbath.
And, of course, Jesus healed the man with the withered hand.
And then the Holy Spirit lets us in on the absolute goal of the pharisees.
Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.
The Pharisees always dogged the steps of Christ his whole ministry, until the final confrontation as Jesus condemned them.
Matthew recounts this for us as the final straw in the Pharisees refusal to accept the person and the works of the Lord.
In this account the people had been bringing all kinds of people to the Lord to be healed.
The people’s reaction to the miracles of Christ is worth noting.
And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?
The people began to wonder at the fact that this person in he Messiah.
So the Pharisees had an answer to that.
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
This fellow is not the Messiah because he is a magician, He does what He does by the power of Satan and not God.
Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
Jesus says that every sin is forgivable, but that there is one sin that is instantly and permanently damnable.
Now, the Pharisees did not believe their own ruse.
After all, Christ was standing right before them when He put His glory and power on display.
They clearly knew the full truth about Him, but they rejected Him anyway.
And they actively tried to turn others away from following Him as well.
The hard-hearted intentionality of the Pharisees’s sin is the main factor that made it unpardonable.
Their sin was so heinous and so hateful that Jesus damned them forever on that spot.
Matthew 13 marks the first chapter where Jesus began to speak in Parables.
And He began to speak in parables to that:
Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
In other words, if you have ears to hear, you will hear more.
If you do not have ears to hear the truth then even the understanding that you think that you have will be taken away from you.
And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
So Christ’s whole purpose of speaking in parables was not to reveal truth.
But it was to conceal truth from those that, like the pharisees , refused to hear and believe.
And as Jesus began to speak in Parables, we want to notice the parables that deal with the cost of discipleship.
What is the Kingdom?
What is the Kingdom?
When Jesus began to speak in Parables, He began the Parable by saying “The kingdom of Heave,” or the “Kingdom of God.”
That is how you can tell determine that what you are about to hear is a parable.
What exactly does Jesus mean when He speaks about the “Kingdom of Heaven,” or the “Kingdom of God.”
Some people try and separate the two, but the fact is that both terminologies refer to the same place.
It is the realm over which Jesus Christ reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The Kingdom is synonymous with the sphere of salvation.
The place where the redeemed have their citizenship.
So parables were told to describe, similar to the Beatitudes, what kingdom citizens look like.
The Kingdom would both be heaven and the realm of the kingdom that the Lord Jesus reigns on the earth.
The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven speak about the realm where Christ rules.