The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30

Jesus declared about Himself in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except by Me.” What He is saying is that through Him is the way of life, real life, abundant life, spiritual life. He said in John 10:10 “I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.” He isn’t talking about having a good life, or living the good life, receiving material blessings from God. When He speaks about abundant life He is talking about spiritual life. And to have spiritual life Jesus said you

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The Parable of the Ten Virgins, Matthew 25:1-13

This parable is taken from a sermon that Jesus preached which is called the Olivet Discourse. It is found in Matthew 24 and 25 and its a sermon in which Jesus speaks about His second coming. And this particular parable is a warning parable. There are several such warning parables in this sermon. The disciples had asked Him the question, which initiated the sermon, “When shall these things be?” In other words, they wanted to know the time of the second coming, the time of the establishing of the Kingdom, the time of setting up the Messiah’s rule on the

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The Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:11-32

Today we are looking at possibly the best known and the best loved parable that we have been given in the scriptures.  It is popularly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Prodigal is a word that means wastefully extravagant, to spend or use resources recklessly.  It’s interesting that the word prodigal is not used in the Biblical account of Jesus’s words.  He never used that word. Just to be contrary, I guess, I came up with what I think is a better title.  I am calling it The Parable of the Lost Son. I’ve heard many other possible

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The Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37

Today we are looking at another parable of Jesus which is called the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  That’s a title that was given by the translators and editors of the original manuscripts.  It’s not phrase that would have been understood by Jesus’s audience.  That phrase would have been considered by Jesus’s listeners as an oxymoron.  In the opinion of most Jews of that day, the only good Samaritan would have been a dead Samaritan.  Samaritans were considered people of the lowest, most despicable character.  They were half breeds who were the descendants of those Jews left in the land

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The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Matthew 18:21-35

This parable teaches the universal need for forgiveness – both the need to be forgiven, and the need to forgive. Jesus illustrates in this parable how God’s forgiveness is to be a precursor to our forgiveness of others. If we have been forgiven, then we should forgive others. This principle is essential to our psychological well being, in dealing with two common causes of anxiety, depression, and all sorts of psychological problems; those two causes being on the one hand guilt, and on the other hand resentment. Jesus illustrates in this parable how we can be set free from the

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The Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, Luke 18:9-14

We saw last week in the account of  the rich young ruler that there are many people who feel some need to be religious, to be rich towards God, because they are not like the rich fool in the earlier parable who cares not for God nor man but only for his pleasure on earth, but these people believe in God and in the hereafter, and they think it prudent that they make an investment in heaven so that they will be rewarded after this life is over.  This desire for religion then a common aspiration throughout the entire world

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The Parable of the Laborers of the Vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16

As we learned previously in our study of the parables, it’s important to determine the primary principle that was being taught by Jesus in the parable.  We should avoid the temptation to allegorize every detail of the story, but try to discern the central thought that Jesus was teaching. Having said that, however, it’s still possible to have more than one application.  And this parable lends itself to possibly more than one application.  But rather than focus on whatever those possible interpretations may be at this point, I want to go back to chapter 19, because I think that by

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Twin parables about being rich towards God, Matthew 13:44-46

When we studied the parable of the rich fool, and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, there was a similar truth which was taught in both. And that truth was the danger of being rich in the things of the world, but poor in relation to God. Jesus said that he is a fool who “stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Lazarus in the second parable was poor in the world’s things, but was rich towards God and thus was able to enjoy the treasures of heaven upon entering into eternity. In contrast,

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The Rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16:19-31

In the first message of our series on the Parables of Jesus, I gave the following definition of a parable; Parables as Jesus used them are fictional illustrations taken from real life situations, which teach a spiritual lesson. Now by that definition, I do not think that the story we have in front of us today strictly qualifies as a parable.  And the reason I say that is because I don’t believe that it is fictional.  I think it’s an actual story about two real people.  I think that is evident because this is the only so called parable in

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Parable of the Rich Fool, Luke 12: 13-21

Today we are looking at the second in our series on the parables of Jesus. This particular parable is given in a context though which is important to consider if we are to understand the meaning of this parable.  Remember last time we said that some parables are explained by Jesus, in some cases the central thought is given by the author, and in some cases we are left to figure it out on our own from the context.  In this case, Jesus gives some instruction beforehand  which helps us to understand  what He is teaching in the parable.  So

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