What are parables, and why did Jesus use them so often?

<p>What are parables, and why did Jesus use them so often?</p>

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Hope Channel

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2024: Stories that Transform

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

Joe Reeves

01 Rooted in Faith

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey everyone, my name is Justin and welcome to Inverse.

We are embarking on a new Bible study topic today.

We're so happy that you have decided to join us here in the studio.

And we have Siku here on my left, your right, and we got Israel to my right, your left.

But we have a new team member with us today, and I want to introduce Joe Reeves.

Hey, Do we call you Joe or do we call you Joseph?

Does your wife call you Joseph when she's angry?

1 of my parents called me Joseph, 1 of them called me Joe.

Well, we're so glad that you decided to join us.

If you want to follow along with us, we're in a new Bible study topic.

This is the episode to do it, in joining us for the next 13 weeks in studying the parables of Jesus.

Go to inversebible.org slash inverse and you can download the Bible study guide there.

You can look for, what's the actual topic on?

It's called Stories That Transform, Stories That Transform, and these are Jesus' stories that transform.

We'll have a word of prayer, Sikhu if you can lead us out, and we'll talk a little bit about what these stories do.

Loving Father, we're thankful that we can come to your word again, And the same way that you've blessed us in the past, when we read scripture, we pray that you'd bless us now.

We ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide our understanding as we begin this journey of looking at some of the stories that you told when you're on this earth.

May we glean the blessing that you intended for us to when you share these stories.

I want to ask you guys, like, we're going to get into, we're going to get into Mark, Mark chapter 4 and get into the text.

But yeah, let's look at stories a little bit.

You all should be familiar what the parables are.

Maybe there's someone out there who's not familiar what the parable is.

What is a parable and why does Jesus use that?

Parables are just, I think they're stories, true stories, or I don't want to say false stories, but they're not always events that actually happen, but they're means by which Jesus illustrated deep truths that would be said in our minds.

And so he often used illustration so that every time we looked at those illustrations that happened in common everyday walks of life, it would spark the truth that he was seeking to teach.

How are these stories different from like, you know, Aesop stories?

You guys know Aesop, the rabbit and the tortoise or the fox and the hare or the giraffe and the elephant and the, you know, that's not a real story.

How are Jesus' stories from all the other fairy tale stories, not all the other, but like the fairy tale stories of Europe or, you know, the stereotypical African, you know, the lion meets the, you know, whatever, or the Asian, you know, all these cultural stories.

Why are Jesus' stories different from the rest of those?

Well, Jesus, with many of his stories, begin with the kingdom of heaven is like.

So his stories were to reveal the kingdom of heaven.

And many of these other stories, I don't know, there's a large entertainment factor, there's cultural factors too, But every single story, we could call it metaphor, they use that word sometimes in literature, metaphor illustration was to reveal the kingdom of heaven.

So all these other stories, that's awesome.

They reveal kind of how we should interact with each other.

You know Aesop's fables, they're great illustrations for like, hey, how do 2 people, how they should get along or social dynamics or where a country came from, you know.

I know the ancient Koreans believe that we came from some mountain from because of a bear and some wart or something.

Anyway, so Jesus' parables don't talk necessarily about Earth, but about Heaven, and because of Heaven, how we should interact here on Earth.

Or at least connecting the 2, because he was wanting to bring the kingdom of Heaven to Earth.

Any other insights you guys may have about Jesus's parables?

Yeah, what I mentioned before, I think it's worth illustrating again or mentioning again.

That's the fact that Jesus was able to take things that happen in common walks of life all the time.

And the whole purpose of that, of bringing the kingdom of God here on earth in our personal lives was so that we would be able to draw object lessons from common things in life.

So he often talked about things that happened with agriculture because it was an agricultural society, or things that had to do with keeping sheep because a lot of people were shepherds.

And all of these different things were designed for God's people, whoever wanted to live a righteous life, for them to be able to bring, kind of set their affections on things above rather than just on the things of the earth.

And that's what, for me personally, parables have done.

Often as I'm living life on a regular basis, you see these elements of these parables taking place in my everyday life and it reminds me of, oh, this is what Jesus was referring to.

Another aspect that parables had when Jesus used them was because it was not...

It was teaching a lesson but you need to decipher the lesson, right?

Yeah, they're not always straightforward and there's kind of, there's an interpretive journey that you have to go through to understand what the parallel is talking about.

And so it actually was a medium for him to say things, sometimes things that were difficult, to say things that would challenge people in very serious ways, to say it without saying it.

And then if you're willing to understand, you could understand, but then if you were close to it, you maybe wouldn't understand.

So it's kind of a way to communicate, it was a way for him to communicate, sometimes difficult truths to people who maybe were not willing to hear them at times.

It's 1 way to speak straight to someone without speaking straight to them.

02 Lost but Found

My name is Justin Kim and host of the show and so happy to be in the studio with Joe and Israel and lovely Siku.

The men are also lovely but that's not politically correct to say and we wanna say that we're welcome to see you guys here whether by podcast or video on social media or through the old medium of satellite network TV.

We are studying the stories of Jesus and we in previous seasons We've looked at last day events and hard theology and the Old Testament and some of these overarching, just heavy, heavy topics.

And we studied last week that is a temptation to think that these are just light stories.

There's these heavy truths in the stories of Jesus as well.

So whether you're familiar with Jesus or not, we're gonna study 1 very famous and well known, but still having truth for us, stories of Jesus.

Those are all dashes in there to modify the Jesus story.

We're going to be studying today, but as we always do, we're not just going to read for reading sake.

We're going to be studying and asking the Holy Spirit to guide us.

We want to encourage you guys to pray with us.

And today, you know, I'll pray, because I really don't pray on the show, and I'll be good, so let's pray together.

Gracious Father, we thank you very much for this medium.

Father, we ask for a special blessing that you smile on each of those who are listening and watching and partaking in our conversation.

Father, we are not here just to wax eloquent or wax even ineloquent.

May this not just be an intellectual exercise or a superficial exercise, But we ask for your Holy Spirit to help us understand Luke 15 on the state of lostness and what your Son intended when he spoke these truths originally we pray in Jesus name.

Amen Joe if you can start from reading Luke chapter 15.

If you guys out there have your Bibles, open it with us.

You can open up your Bible app on your phone.

And you can also, if you don't know what I'm talking about, go to hopetv.org slash inverse, and you can watch last week's episode where we actually talk about the importance of parables.

And you can also go to inversebible.org slash, slash, what do we do, inverse?

Bible.org Oh, inversebible.org, and you can actually look at the Bible study guidance study along with us.

We are in the section called Stories That Transform, right?

We're gonna read, let's see, where should we start, Joe?

Luke chapter 15, let's start from verse 11 and let's just go until we feel like ending.

All right, this is the parable of the lost son.

Luke 15, verse 11 says, then he said, a certain man had 2 sons and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.

And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, journeying to a far country and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.

But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want.

Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no 1 gave him anything.

But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?

I will arise, go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Make me like 1 of your hired servants.' And he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.

Okay, let's pick up verse 22 with Israel.

But the father said to his servants, bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry.

For this my son was dead and is alive again.

Now his older son was in a field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.

So he called 1 of the servants and asked what these things meant.

And he said to him, your brother has come and because he has received him safe and sound your father has killed the fatted calf.

Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

So he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends.

But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.

And he said to him, son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.

It is right that we should make merry, and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive and was lost and is found.

Right, this is a classic proverb, more and more, not, we just came back from a young adult retreat, And you would assume that this parable was familiar with everyone and this person that I sat with, hey, this is the first time I ever read this.

And I explained to them, I was like, man, that's a powerful story.

So just even my synopsis of it was like, man, is that in the Bible?

And there may be some of you, this is your first time.

So whether it's your first time or this is your scholar, let's get into this.

Siku, what are some things that pop out immediately in reading of this parable?

Before we actually get into it, maybe can you give us a little bit of intro?

Chapter 15 has 2 other parables before it, and these 3 are kind of considered a trio.

Okay, So the 2 parables that precede this 1 are also talking about something that's lost.

In the first 1, it's a sheep that is lost, and in the second 1, it is a coin that is lost.

The audience that Jesus is speaking to, he's speaking to Pharisees and scribes.

These are religious individuals, and he is in the company of irreligious people.

He's got the tax collectors gathering around him, and then he speaks these parables in that context.

And the first 1, the shepherd has 100 sheep.

1 gets lost, and he leaves the 99 to go and find that 1.

And at the end of it, there's rejoicing, you know, over that 1 sheep that was found.

And you have a similar situation in the second parable that he tells where there's a coin, there are 10 coins, and this woman loses 1 coin.

And she turns over her house searching for this 1 coin, and when she finds it, she calls everybody together and there's great rejoicing.

And so those are the 2 that precede this 1.

So there's the train of thought that flows with all of them is that something is lost and then is found.

And then there are differences between what is lost and the awareness of what is lost.

Awareness that what is lost has of its being lost.

Okay you can editorialize your own comment there.

So that the sheep may know that it's lost because you know, it's all by itself But the coin does not know that it's lost and then the Sun doesn't feel lost in the beginning But then realizes that he's not where he should be.

Yeah, it's a profound point There are like 3 states of lostness.

1 doesn't know, doesn't want to get back.

1 doesn't know in the beginning, but later finds out and wants to get back.

03 Discovering the Treasure

What is it in your life that you just go all out for?

That's what we're talking about in this episode.

I wanna say hello to each 1 of you out there watching on social media or TV or podcast or radio or whatever platform you are listening to us on, watching us on.

I want to say hello to Shiku and Israel and Joe.

And we also want to say hi to Jonathan out there and Callie and Sebastian, wherever you may be in the world.

God bless you guys and we miss you very much.

We're gonna go to Matthew chapter 13, Matthew 13.

We've been looking at the parables of Jesus.

And if you want to look at episodes 1 and 2, you can go to hopetv.org slash inverse, and you can you can just binge watch all the quarters that we've gone been having in the last what 6, 08:12, 10, a long time we've been doing this and the Lord has blessed and we're very thankful to God for allowing this opportunity but for this quarter we are on the the arc called Stories That Transform.

Let's go to Matthew chapter 13 verse 44 to 46.

Joe can you lead us out in prayer before we read scripture?

We want to come into contact with your heart, your character, as we look into your word right now and ask for your divine aid.

We're gonna read verse 44, which is 1 parable, and then 45 and 46, which is another parable, and then we'll stop reading.

It says, again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who when he had found 1 pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." A lot of Jesus's parables, as well, they start off with Jesus saying the kingdom of heaven.

When you hear that, what comes to your mind?

We talked about he reveals heavenly things, but is that a motif thing that Jesus does?

You know, we often, well, especially in this context, you had the Israelites who were really waiting for the Messiah to come, who would establish a kingdom on earth.

And so, oftentimes, we, like them, have our own understanding of what the kingdom of God should be like.

You know, we often pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

And in the process of life, I believe that through these parables and through the teachings of Christ, He's actually trying to transform the way we view the world.

And the kingdom of heaven is very different from a kingdom on earth.

And so we have these ideas in our minds of what a kingdom looks like.

And these ideas will usually have concepts of power, concepts of rule, concepts of domination, force, all of these different things.

And Jesus is establishing a kingdom that is completely different from this kind of kingdom.

So much so that if you were to look at his kingdom you would not be able to tell that it is they are actually 1 in the same right it is a kingdom and so god is jesus is trying to say look the kingdom of heaven it's very different from your concept of a kingdom so let me let me reshift let me shift the way you're thinking about a kingdom.

My kingdom is not, like we looked at the parable of the seeds a few weeks ago, my kingdom is not a kingdom that takes place through force or through violence.

Instead, it is like a seed that is planted.

And it uses power, a different form of power, power that is in some ways greater, right?

It is fragile, yet it produces this huge tree, or it is fragile, yet it produces so much life.

And so Oftentimes the parables or Christ's teachings were designed to teach us how to think more like him in our walks of life here.

Yeah, and while you were talking, I was thinking of, man, that's really profound thought that human beings all have an expectation of what the kingdom should look like here on Earth.

All throughout the 1700s and 1800s you have European powers trying to create and expand Christianity all throughout whether it could for good or bad I mean that's for history to decide and for what not.

You had here in North America you know this American still kind of this American nationalism and the heydays in its 50s, but also Christian nationalism combining with different political parties.

And you have the current social milieu now with social justice and with minority powers rising up and trying to create an egalitarian society.

I think each of these visions, and there's bazillions of more, right?

But each of them have core good elements in it, and then some core bad parts in it, and then history judges it and whatnot.

And it's very interesting that Jesus is kind of reacting to, even though he's reacting to the Jewish understanding at that time, he's also reacting to also future human understandings.

At the end of the day, the core is human nature.

And so this is just a totally new kingdom altogether.

I get personally annoyed, and this is kind of something that I have to pray through, that I don't impose my political expectations on the kingdom of God, too.

I mean, that's a human temptation for every, not age, but also at every individual.

Because you look at, if you, sorry, if you look at the, just the trajectory of history, even every time a persecuted power comes into power, what do they do?

Because this is the natural tendency of the human heart.

And so God is trying to teach us, you have to be a completely different person if you wanna be part of my kingdom.

Because you have to act differently, but in order to act differently, you have to be different, you have to think differently, and so that's what I see in the dream of God.

Years ago, a preacher used an illustration I never forgot, imagining going way down deep into the ocean, if you're like 5, 000 feet down in the ocean.

There's no sunlight, there's no air, and you find 1 of these fish, there's living fish down there, and try to describe to that fish what it's like to be out of the ocean.

And that fish has a hard time imagining air, it's never seen the air, imagining sunlight and land and all these things.

And that's about the kind of gap we're dealing with when Jesus came to describe the kingdom of heaven.

He's trying to find all these contact points through these stories, the kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven is like, if he can somehow grab our imagination to show us how different it is from our kingdoms.

And that range of intelligence is far wider between Jesus and us than us and the fish.

Well, let's go to verse 44 and let's kind of look through that first 1.

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field.

Man finds and hides it back up again, And for joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Why did this person go and find and hide it and then sell it, or sell all that he has and buy it again?

And what makes this guy go all out for something?

Yeah, there's what's awesome about this parable, it has so many different things in it.

Like there's an element of ethics, right?

He doesn't steal the treasure, he buys the treasure.

First of all, I love it how it's so short, but it just gets even more, yeah, yeah, okay, sorry.

So, the first thing is the nature of the kingdom is that in order to fall upon the kingdom or in order to be a part of this kingdom, it is something that you have to, I don't wanna say work for, but you have to work for it.

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Series

InVerse 3rd Quarter 2024: Stories that Transform

01 Rooted in Faith

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Parts

01 Rooted in Faith

28m

02 Lost but Found

29m

03 Discovering the Treasure

29m

04 Caught in the Crossfire

29m

05 Persistent in Prayer

29m

06 Loving our Neighbor

29m

07 The Wedding Garment

29m

08 Bearing Fruit

29m

09 Giving to God

29m

10 Called to Serve

29m

11 Living for Eternity

29m

12 Filled with the Spirit

29m

13 Building on the Rock

29m

Sound Doctrine