Scripture
We are studying the life and ministry of Jesus as it has been recorded in The Gospel of Luke. Two main features characterized Jesus’ ministry: teaching and miracles. We have already examined a number of examples of each.
Jesus used illustrations masterfully in his teaching. His favorite kind of illustration was a “parable.” Elwell and Beitzel note that “an understanding of parables is essential if one is to understand the teaching of Jesus, since the parables make up approximately 35 percent of his recorded sayings.”
Jesus tells us the purpose of his use of parables in the parable of the sower. Next week I shall expound the parable of the sower. Today, however, I would like to examine the purpose of the parables of Jesus.
For the sake of context, let’s read Jesus’ parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15. However, the focus of today’s message is the purpose of the parables in Luke 8:9-10:
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:9-10)
Introduction
Bible commentator Gordon J. Keddie said that his one brush with royalty was in 1959, when Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visited George Heriot’s school in Edinburgh on the occasion of its tercentenary (300th anniversary). Keddie was a teenage biologist at the time whose task was to dissect a rat for the Royal visitor. When Prince Philip arrived at the lab, he looked at the rat and asked if the rat had anything wrong with it. Keddie reported that it was a perfectly normal rat. Later, however, it occurred to him that however normal it might have been, it was also a dead rat. There it was, all opened up, with its internal anatomy all neatly pinned on a board for all to see.
Keddie said that he has since thought that many Bible commentaries do this with the Bible. They dissect its every component, pulling and teasing and cutting, until it is disassembled and pinned down, supposedly to the end that we might understand what it is all about. But, like the dissected rat, it can end up looking rather dead.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to criticize preachers who felt they had to “share their reading” with their congregations, so that what ought to have been a passionate, experiential exposition of the Word of God ended up being more like a report on a homework assignment. Few portions of God’s Word have been subjected to such minute scrutiny as the parables of Jesus. Keddie notes, “In contrast with their essential simplicity, they have been exegetically dissected this way and that to the point where clarity of meaning and firmness of application have sometimes all but disappeared beneath an overburden of speculation and spiritualization.”
Jesus was a master teacher. And as a master teacher, he used illustrations – especially parables – in a masterful way to illustrate his teaching. So, in order for us to understand more clearly the teaching of Jesus, we need to understand the purpose of the parables.
Lesson
A study of the purpose of the parables of Jesus will show us that parables reveal or conceal truth.
Let’s use the following outline:
1. Parables Reveal the Secrets of the Kingdom of God to Some (8:9-10a)
2. Parables Conceal the Secrets of the Kingdom of God to Others (8:10b)
I. Parables Reveal the Secrets of the Kingdom of God to Some (8:9-10a)
First, we learn that parables reveal the secrets of the kingdom of God to some.
Jesus told the parable of the sower toward the end of his ministry in Galilee. Luke said that Jesus taught the parable of the sower “when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him” (8:4). Presumably, after the conclusion of the parable and the dismissal of the great crowd, his disciples asked him what this parable meant (8:9).
Now, as you may be aware, the Bible uses a number of figures of speech.
One common figure of speech is simile. A simile is a “comparison by resemblance.” The blessed man of Psalm 1:3 “is like a tree planted by streams of water,” and the wicked of Psalm 1:4 “are like chaff that the wind drives away.”
A second figure of speech is metaphor. A metaphor is “comparison by representation.” A metaphor affirms that one thing is another thing. So, for example, Psalm 84:11a says, “The Lord God is a sun and shield.”
A third figure of speech is allegory. An allegory is “comparison by implication.” Normally, every point in an allegory represents something else. Perhaps the best-known allegory is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
A fourth figure of speech is hyperbole. A hyperbole is “an intentional exaggeration to underscore or emphasize a certain point.”
And then, of course, a fifth figure of speech is parable. The Greek word for parable (parabole) is made up of two Greek words. The first is para, which means, “alongside,” and the second is ballo, which means, “to throw.” So, a parable is “something thrown alongside something else.”
It is sometimes said, “Most parables are designed to present one single point.” However, I think that New Testament scholar Craig L. Blomberg provides a better way to look at the design of parables. He says:
The evidence which has been accumulating throughout [this book] therefore suggests a very attractive proposal which would enable commentators to affirm more than just one point per parable without moving to the opposite extreme and endorsing an unlimited number of points: each parable makes one main point per character – usually two or three in each case – and these main characters are the most likely elements within the parable to stand for something other than themselves, thus giving the parable its allegorical nature.
So, we shall discover that Jesus used “simple three-point parables, “complex three-point parables,” “two-point parables,” and “one-point parables.” In fact, the parable of the sower in Luke 8:4-15 is a complex three-point parable, as I hope to show you next week.
Now, the most important rule in interpreting any passage of Scripture is context, and a very important element in effective teaching is illustration. Jesus’ principle form of illustration, which he threw alongside his statements of truth, was a parable.
So far in The Gospel of Luke Jesus has used three short parables:
• A new patch on an old garment (5:36).
• New wine in old wineskins (5:37-39).
• A blind man leading a blind man (6:39).
Today’s parable is the first of about 14 long parables in The Gospel of Luke.
R. C. Sproul notes that “parables are rare in the Old Testament, frequent in the Synoptic Gospels, and entirely absent in the Gospel of John and the rest of the New Testament.”
Returning to our text, Jesus’ disciples asked him what this parable meant (8:9). Jesus answered and said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God” (8:10a). The first purpose of the parables is to reveal the secrets of the kingdom of God to some.
The Greek word for secrets is mysteria, from which we get our English word for “mysteries.” We think of a mystery as something that is concealed from us. Or, if we work really hard by hunting for clues, we may be able to figure out the mystery. However, in the Bible, a mystery is neither of these things. It is neither an insolvable problem nor a solvable puzzle. A biblical mystery is something that is revealed to us by God. Louw and Nida define a mystery as “the content of that which has not been known before but which has been revealed to an in-group or restricted constituency.”
One commentator says, “Biblical ‘mysteries’ are spiritual truths – truths about spiritual things.” So, for example, the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:51–52, “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” God has now revealed that when the Lord Jesus returns, the dead shall be raised imperishable, and all Christians will be changed by receiving glorified bodies.
So, in the context of our parable, what are the secrets, or mysteries, that have been revealed? Well, Jesus said that they have to do with the kingdom of God.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that the kingdom of God “is best defined as the rule of God. The kingdom of God is present wherever God is reigning.”
Jesus came to teach about the kingdom of God. He came to tell people that they had broken the King’s Law. This benevolent King had given them his Law, which was for the benefit of all his creation. But the people turned their backs to the King and were in rebellion against the King.
Because the King was righteous and just, he had to punish lawbreakers. The penalty for breaking the King’s Law was death. This meant not only physical death (which is to be cut off from physical life) but also eternal death (which is to be cut off from eternal life).
But the King loved his creatures and set his special, particular love on many. He designed a way for his rebellious creatures to come into a right relationship with him. He did so by providing a substitute who would pay the penalty for the rebellious creatures’ sins.
That substitute was the Lord Jesus Christ. He perfectly satisfied the justice of God. He paid the penalty for our rebellion. He died in our place on the cross at Calvary. God accepted his payment by raising him back to life again after three days.
So, Jesus’ mission was to seek and to save the lost. The focus of his ministry was to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God. He wanted sinners like us to understand that God had provided a way for sinners to be saved from the righteous wrath of God.
The required response to the message of the kingdom of God is repentance and faith. Rebellious sinners must acknowledge that they have broken God’s righteous and holy Law, and they must turn from continuing to do so. And they must believe that Jesus has paid the penalty for their sin, and that his perfect obedience will be credited to their account.
This is what Jesus taught. That is the message of the kingdom of God.
The first purpose of the parables, then, is to enable some, that is, God’s elect, to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. Even though Jesus taught a “great crowd” (8:4), only those for whom the secret was intended to be revealed were enabled to know it.
Jesus was teaching that God’s grace is particular. Jesus was saying in effect, “Yes, there is a very good reason why I am illustrating my teaching with parables. The reason is ultimately rooted in the counsel of eternity, in God’s plan of redemption that was designed before the foundation of the world, in the mystery of sovereign election. The Father has chosen particular sinners to be saved by grace alone through faith alone in me alone. And those whom the Father has given to me will come to understand, embrace, and believe the message of the kingdom of God.”
Hearing the truth of God savingly requires more than hearing the general call of God from the preacher. It requires a work of God the Holy Spirit. It requires a work of grace as God the Holy Spirit effectually calls, regenerates and converts the lost person upon whom the Father has set his particular love from all eternity. As Jesus was later to say, “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).
II. Parables Conceal the Secrets of the Kingdom of God to Others (8:10b)
And second, we learn that parables conceal the secrets of the kingdom of God to others.
Jesus went on to say in Luke 8:10b, “ . . . but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’”
Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9 to show that the very simplicity and clarity of his parables condemned his hearers’ unbelieving response and was therefore the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy.
Jesus spoke in parables to expose the hardness of heart that so many people had – and still have today. Many religious people in Jesus’ day thought they had a right relationship with God because of their supposedly good lives. In reality, they were in rebellion against God – the King.
Please note that Jesus was not trying to be obscure. He was not trying to make sure that rebellious people remained in their unbelief. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Jesus was being as clear as he could be. Jesus explained the good news of the kingdom of God in such a clear way that even a child could understand it and enter the kingdom of God.
The point is that those who rejected Jesus knew what they were rejecting. They simply did not want to submit to the truth of what Jesus was teaching. Herman Hanko makes a fascinating point that “Oftentimes the wicked Pharisees understood the meaning of Jesus’ parables before the disciples did”! And so the point needs to be made that the responsibility for unbelieving comprehension rests with the rebellious sinner. It is not due to some inherent obscurity of the message.
And so Jesus quoted Isaiah, to whom God said centuries before in Isaiah 6:9, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ ” Isaiah was predicting how people over the centuries would respond to the message of the kingdom of God. People would reject the message, not because it was veiled in obscurity or too difficult to understand. They would reject the message of the kingdom of God because it was only too clear.
The people did not want to bow their knees to God, the King of the Universe. They were content in their rebellion. They did not want their lifestyles changed. And so, for them, the secrets of the kingdom of God remained hidden.
Conclusion
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. His message a simple one about the kingdom of God. His parables were designed to illustrate his teaching about the kingdom of God.
There are many ways to classify the parables of Jesus. I like the classification given by Gordon Keddie. He suggests that the main stories that Jesus told in developing his teaching about the kingdom of God can be arranged in three sections, as follows (which I have slightly modified):
1. The nature of the kingdom of God.
2. The characteristics of the kingdom of God.
3. The consummation of the kingdom of God.
As we close today, let me ask you a question. As you consider the message that Jesus brought regarding the kingdom of God, do you rejoice that you are a citizen of the kingdom of God? Or, do you find yourself resisting the message about the kingdom of God?
How you respond will tell you a lot about yourself. I pray that you will respond in faith and repentance, and thereby enter into the kingdom and receive the blessings of the kingdom of God. Amen.
