The main question I want us to answer today is why Jesus taught in parables. Why not just speak directly?
Read Matthew 13:11-17
That’s where parables come in. In these short stories and illustrations, Jesus takes the wild and unexpected and countercultural message of God’s upside-down kingdom - a message where the last are first and the first are last, where the poor are blessed and the blind can see - that kingdom - and he presents it in a way that only those with “ears to hear” will understand.
That’s why, again in verse 12, Jesus says “to those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away.”
Read Matthew 13:18-23
Put simply, the parable is about those who have ears to hear and those who don’t.
Does your understanding of God’s kingdom involve the radical transformation of the broken world around you, or does it boil down to you staying out of trouble so you can go to heaven when you die?
In other words, has the message of Jesus changed you so much that everywhere you go, the world looks a little more like his kingdom?
Is your faith today deeper than it was a month ago? A year ago? A decade ago? How deep are your roots? Are you growing in Jesus or are you going through the motions?
This one is touchy, but I have to ask it. How much of your worldview and opinions right now are shaped by news networks, social media, protest movements, and angry conversations?
Is your faith interwoven with a political ideology right now? How much of your faith is genuinely shaped by wrestling with the Holy Spirit and the words of Scripture first?
I ask all these questions not to accuse, not to point fingers, but to wake us up. Our job as Christ-followers is not to just exist… it’s to bear fruit so we can multiply the message of Jesus to future generations.
But I’ve got good news. And it comes from my slowly growing experience as a wannabe farmer… Soil can be improved.
Let’s be the kinds of people Jesus talked about:
Matthew 13:23
“…who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
Our world needs the message of Jesus right now. Let us have ears to hear it.
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'You Were Made for More' because God created you ON purpose FOR a purpose. This is the vision of Grace Church, led by Pastor Barry Rodriguez and based in Indianapolis, IN.
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