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,”
• But it is rarely discussed what exactly “it” is.
• Some say it refers to, exercise and muscles.
• Others that it has to do with the brain and learning.
• That may or may not be true,
• But spiritually we know exactly what, “it” is!
• If we are hard-hearted, our motives are wrong,
• We can lose even the truth God has given to us.
Ill:
• Mobile phone you sometimes have to move around to get a good signal.
• Hard-hearted or sinfulness makes for a bad connection with God – we lose it!
• Receptive hearts get the message in full!
Parable #1. The Sign Of Jonah (vs 29-30 & 32)
“As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.”
“The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now something greater than Jonah is here.”
Ill:
• If your parents were Christians or you went to a Sunday School or mid-week club,
• Jonah and the whale (or large fish),
• Is one of the first stories you would have learnt.
Ill:
• Rudyard Kipling, English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist,
• Best known for his book, ‘Jungle Book.’
• (British joke: And not the Mr Kipling of the exceeding good cakes).
• When talking about the strengths and influence of the British Empire,
• Warned his readers that empires are fleeting.
• In his poem ‘Recessional’ (1897) he writes.
“Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
"Lest we forget — lest we forget!"”
• TRANSITION:
• God does not want people to forget the lessons of the book of Jonah,
• Nor the destiny of the Assyrian capital of Nineveh.
• We know how God wanted to send Jonah to Nineveh,
• But Jonah ran from God, got swallowed by a big fish, and then finally went anyway.
• He preached to the people of Nineveh, they repented,
• And God saved the city from destruction.
Note: The book of Jonah illustrates the gospel in a nutshell.
• FIRST: The sin of the Ninevites was an offence to a holy God and should be punished.
• SECOND: God warned them to repent!
• THIRD: Amazingly the whole city repented!
• FOURTH: God forgave them, and judgment was spared.
• TRANSITION:
• FIRST: We have, “all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” and sin brings death!
• (Romans chapter 3 verse 23 & Romans chapter 6 verse 23)
• SECOND: God warns us in the Bible to repent!
• (Jesus declares, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish," -
• Luke chapter 13 verse 3 & Mark chapter 1 verse 15 & Acts chapter 2 verse 38)
• THIRD: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
• (John chapter 3 verse s16-18)
• FOURTH: God forgives those who trust in Jesus Christ,
• The one who bore our judgement and sin so we could be spared.
• “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”
• (Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7 & Romans chapter 4 verses 7-8).
Note: The religious leaders kept on asking Jesus for a sign.
• They wanted evidence that Jesus was the Messiah.
• But remember these leaders were hard-hearted.
• God had given them sign after sign and they still would not believe.
Ill:
• Remember when John the Baptist is in prison, having doubts,
• He sends his disciples to ask whether Jesus is really the “one who is to come.”
• Jesus replies (Matthew chapter 11 verses 2-11).
“Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
• Jesus had given them sign after sign and they still would not believe.
• Whatever he did would not be enough!
• The only sign Jesus promised them was ‘The sign of Jonah’.
• That is death & resurrection!
The resurrection of Jesus is considered the greatest miracle,
• Because it defies all natural laws and scientific explanations.
• It is an act that only God could perform.
• The resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is truly divine,
• And has power over life and death.
• The resurrection also proves that something supernatural happened on the cross.
• That Christ did indeed pay the prices for our sins!
Parable #2. The Queen of The South (vs 31).
“The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now something greater than Solomon is here.”
• The Queen of the South is elsewhere called, The Queen of Sheba
• We looked at her story this morning (1 Kings chapter 10,
• The emphasis in this illustration is on the fact,
• She made a long and difficult journey to hear the wisdom of Solomon.
• (Approximately 1,500 miles).
• Jesus them made the point, One “greater than Solomon is here.”
• But the Jewish people missed their opportunity!
• Makle sure you don’t make the same mistake!
• These Jewish hearers have someone even wiser in their presence,
• And unlike the Queen of Sheba, they did not have to travel anywhere,
• God has travelled to them in the person of Jesus Christ.
• But sadly, the Jewish people missed their opportunity!
• And when the Jews reject Jesus, they open up the way for Gentiles to believe.
Note: The important thing in these two illustrations is that they involve Gentiles:
• The word Gentile means, ‘of the nations.’
• The term Gentile doesn’t really describe who someone is, but rather who they are not!
• It refers to anyone who is not Jewish.
• Jonah preached in Nineveh and the Gentile Ninevites believed.
• Solomon spoke to a Gentile Queen, and she marvelled and received his words gladly.
• So, Jesus said to his Jewish listeners,
• That at the judgement day these Gentiles will testify against you Jews.
• Because you have many, many privilege,
• i.e. The Scriptures, the prophets and now God’s Son, but you still refuse to believe!
• TRANSITION: We could say,
• These Gentiles were spiritually enlightened,
• While the Jewish people & leaders were in spiritual darkness.
Parable #3: The Lamp of The Body (vs 33-36).
• This third illustration is not from history but from daily life.
• It is an illustration that Jesus has used before in his teaching.
• (Matthew chapter 6 verse 22-23).
• But this time he uses it with a slightly different application.
Ill:
• In July 2018,
• It 50 seconds to capture the brightest, most mysterious light in the universes,
• Following a mysterious explosion in space
• The explosions were gamma-ray bursts,
• Short eruptions of the most energetic form of light in the universe.
• The light produced contained about 100 billion times,
• As much energy as the light that's visible to our eyes.
• Quote: David Berge (a gamma-ray scientist).
"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe and typically release more energy in just a few seconds than our sun during its entire lifetime,"
• TRANSITION: All that light cannot help a blind man to see.
• In fact, the very opposite,
• If you looked at it with the naked eye you would be permanently blind!
Notice:
• How Jesus uses light in this illustration.
• He states four things.
• FIRST: Light must shine (vs 33)
“No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”
• SECOND: Light must illuminate (vs 34a)
“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.”
• The people of Jesus day immediately see the link between the two!
• Sight and the body.
• Skilled/unskilled workers could not work if they were blind.
• i.e. Carpenter or a farm labourer.
• They knew that all the body’s activity is influenced by the eyes.
• THIRD: Light Can Grow Dim (vs 35-36)
“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
Each person can have two different types of spiritual “eyes.”
• We can have eyes that are healthy,
• We can have eyes that are unhealthy.
• Verse 35 will twist your brains if you give it the chance.
• “See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness.”
• Now there is something to ponder!
• FOURTH: Light Must be Our Goal (vs 36)
“Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
• The Bible says, “God is light.” (1 John chapter 1 verse 5.)
• Light symbolizes his righteousness, purity & holiness.
• Jesus said (John chapter 8 verse 12)
• “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Each of us are either in spiritual light or in darkness.
• If you are in the light, I suggest you know the truth of three things.
• (a). That your sins are forgiven.
• (b). That you are indwelt by The Holy Spirit of God (sealed/belong)
• (c). That when you die you will be with the Lord forever!
• Question: Are your sins are forgiven.
• il: I spoke to a man last Sunday at Speakers Corner Hude Park, London.
• He was bare foot wearing sackcloth and there to do penance! How sad!
• Question: Are you are indwelt by The Holy Spirit of God (sealed/belong).
• Do you know that you have been ‘Born again’ by the Spirit of God? (John chapter 3)
• Question: That when you die you will be with the Lord forever!
• Death for the believe is not a dark vast chasm.
• Quote Martin Luther King: “Death for the believer is a reward!”
Quote D.L. Moody (Great American evangelist in the 19th century).
"Someday you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield, is dead. Don't you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now".
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=afiZwowRHFFXPovSNajQz67D7qbZewm1
