Day 27

Seeing With God’s Eyes:

The Parables of Jesus (2)

Roger and Eileen Himes

www.ThePracticalGospel.com

Today is a continuation of yesterday. We’re seeing how the parables of Jesus relate to the gospel, and how it works in us. These parables are the foundation for many things that have been said up to this point, in the 25 prior days. Jesus devoted much of his earthly ministry to teaching about the Kingdom of God by means of parables. In fact, ‘the gospel,’ as the means to describe the Kingdom, is the substance of the parables. Thus, we should take time to understand and apply the parables.

In his parables, Jesus shows how it all WORKS PRACTICALLY. There’s little doctrine in the parables — just a picture of how the gospel process of God works in us and through us.

The parable of the lost sheep, and the lost coin, show how important we are to our loving Father (Mt 18:11-14, Lk 15:1-10). These are not really evangelical verses that are focused on people outside the Kingdom. They are people lost INSIDE the Kingdom. The sheep was part of the flock, and the coin was part of God’s possession. But they were misplaced. The owner is shown searching for them — drastically.

The writings of the New Testament make frequent mention to God’s people being ‘lost.’ Paul says, “If our gospel be hidden, it is hidden to them who are LOST.” This and other passages do not speak about the loss of salvation. It does not mean ‘lost in the sense of going to hell.’ It means lost in the productivity of God. It means useless, non-usable, and in a sense spiritually worthless. This is how I feel God sees us outside of the process of his gospel. It’s like we have a tail coming out of our lower backs with a plug on the end of it. But we’re not plugged in! We seek to be plugged in, but we’re not. This is being lost — useless.

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The Parable of The Prodigal Sons show us other aspects of being ‘lost,’ in the sense of being spiritually unproductive because we’re not in the process of God’s gospel (Lk 15:11-32).

The younger son was lost because he chose to be. He rebelled. He left his father’s house, with an inheritance that didn’t belong to him, and he squandered it. Later he ‘came to his senses,’ and he returned to his father, and was accepted and reunited in the family (God’s kingdom). He was never not a part of God’s Kingdom. He’d been born into it. Just because he was off, lost in SELF, and doing his own thing, didn’t mean he didn’t belong to his father.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #53

I hope this doesn’t describe someone lost and going to hell, because it describes MANY church going Christians. They live life in SELF, and use God’s kingdom and principles to achieve their own self-focused ends. They love their father, in the sense of being related to him by new birth, but they are off on a selfish, narcissistic, and doing their own thing.

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The older son should be more troubling to us than the younger son. He was very angry and self-righteous at his brother’s reunion with their father. He lived in the father’s house, and worked for his father. He was very diligent, trustworthy, faithful, and consistent in the family business. He was there when his father needed him. But he didn’t know his father, except in a casual way. He didn’t know his father’s intense love, or his grace, or his imparted righteousness, or his thoughts about inheritance. He did the right THINGS, but didn’t relate to his dad intimately.

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GOSPEL TRUTH #54

This describes so many good church going Christians today as well. Armed with principles, they are diligent, trustworthy, faithful and consistent in things they do. They’re there to warm a pew and hear a sermon. But they don’t know their Father, except in a casual way. They don’t know his intense love for them… his grace… his imparted righteousness. They don’t know they are beneficiaries, and that EVERYTHING Father has is theirs (Lk 15:31). They are older brothers, not gospel fathers.

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We cannot even touch on ALL the parables of Jesus. There were so many of them. There are many of his teachings that are not called ‘a parable,’ by name, but they truly are parables by style and application. But let’s continue through today, and cover as many as we can.

Also, there are different ways to look at the parables. The lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal sons can be looked at in the sense of ‘the inviting father,’ who is always seeking communion and fellowship with us. The wedding feast we looked at can be seen in the light of a father who likes to party and just have fun and joy in his Kingdom.

Jesus came eating and drinking, and was called a glutton and a wino of sorts. So in these we can see different natures of God. The more you see with gospel eyes, the more the Lord can reveal his secrets to you let you see them. The gospel is a constantly growing process.

Jesus says so much about RECEIVING the Kingdom. His illustration of this is in the form of seed. But there’s also a lot said about RELEASING the Kingdom: “As you have freely received, so freely give.”

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We are meant to release forgiveness (Lk 7:41-43). Jesus went to the banquet at Simon’s house, but this Pharisee didn’t even do what the law required. The woman who washed Jesus’ feet was moved by love, and she was totally forgiven. “Love covers a multitude of sins.” We are meant to forgive others in like manner as we have been forgiven. It begins with God. He does not simply forgive us. He can’t because he’s just. But he does forgive us — because of Jesus. Likewise, we should forgive others — because of Jesus. We are never told to do something in our flesh in the gospel — but only in the power of God.

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We are meant to be a good Samaritan, which is the lowest level Christian you can possibly be, in the eyes of Jews (Lk 10:30-37). This story shows us people do not exist for us to exploit, or to theologize about. The issue is not, “Who IS my neighbor?” as stated in the story, but rather, “To whom can I BE a neighbor?” The issue is not academic but the practical RELEASING of the gospel we have RECEIVED. It is the seed we have had planted in us producing good fruit (Col 1:5-6).

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We are meant to be true friends who are neighbors: those who are part of God’s Kingdom (Lk 11:5-10). Even if they trouble us in unwanted ways (at midnight), we are meant to be there for others in their need, just like God is always there for us. “I will never leave you or forsake you.” God allows us to experience things in life so we can use them to help comfort others in time of need (II Cor 1:4). This can apply to both trials, and good things of the gospel. The bottom line is that God does so much for US, we should just share it with others (I Thes 3:12).

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The parable of the tenants in the vineyard involves people who worked the land, and were focused and dedicated (Mt21:33-44, Mk 2:1-11, Lk 20:9-18). But they reject God’s prophets. They didn’t want to hear TRUTH, but only the PRINCIPLES that would make life work for their betterment. In the gospel, we should just receive whatever the gospel of God sows into us, and not reject or minimize any of it.

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We saw the rich young ruler earlier (Mt 19:16-30, Mk 10:17-31, Lk 18:18-30). The primary gospel message here is that we don’t LACK anything, as the man thought he did. We have been GIVEN all things (Lk 15:31), the Kingdom of God itself (Lk 12:32), and even the Holy Spirit to show us anything we might inadvertently overlook (I Cor 2:12).

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We should not be like the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20:1-6). They wanted the best position with their employer, and wanted to be paid what they had earned, and what they were worth. Life was founded on comparison, which Paul says not to do (II Cor 10:12). The result is always pride or envy and jealousy. As we will see, the gospel levels the playing field. “The first will be last, the last will be first.” This parable is similar in some regards to the seats at the feast (Lk 14:7-11). The test is often humility vs. honor, and seeking honor from other people, that Jesus says not to do because it destroys faith and belief (John 5:44).

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Like the men in the parable of the pounds, we are meant to use and give what we have been freely given (Mat 25:14-30, Lk 19:12-27). We are not meant to be reservoirs, but channels. These stories show there is a BIG difference in knowing about God, and knowing him personally, as we also saw in the parable of the two sons. Paul asks, “What do you have that you have not been given?” We are stewards of God’s Kingdom, we don’t own it. The barren fig tree shows us God can even demand impossible things from us in his Kingdom — because of his power and divine things he plants into us (Lk 13:6-9).

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The children at play is an interesting parable (Mt 11:16-19, Lk 7:31-35). They said, “We played wedding music, but you would not dance” — “We played funeral music, but you would not cry.” Some find things wrong with everything, and others find nothing wrong with anything. Both are wrong. Our focus should simply be receiving God’s wisdom and will.

We must build on the Rock finished work of the cross, and not on the sand of man’s wisdom, philosophy or theology (Mat 7:15-19, Lk 6:47-49). It is ‘lawlessness’ when we live outside of the established process of God in his Kingdom. Anything else is the kingdom of self.

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Our life should never be empty. Eastern meditation is the art of emptying your mind to receive whatever is available. God’s word does not teach this. Gospel meditation is extreme focus on the TRUTH of God and the FINISHED work of the cross. Ours is a very focused, committed mind, not an empty void one (Mt 12:43-45, Lk 11:24-26). Similarly, we are meant to be watchful and observant in everything, ‘rightly dividing the word of truth,’ as Paul would say, and on guard against any weeds that might try to mix in with our wheat (Mk 13:35-37, Lk 12:35-40).

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Building a tower, and a king going to war, are examples of how we are to live in the gospel, and how we are not to live (Lk 14:25-33). We must know the score — and count the cost. If our tower is the tower of Babel, this is not a tower we should build. We should build an altar of faith instead. But life is always a building process — that’s why it’s called the process of the gospel. Similarly, much of life is warfare, knowing who you are (kings and priests), — and knowing who our enemy is.

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So much more can be said about the parables of Jesus, but hopefully you get at least a glimpse of how most of them are gospel parables — designed to show how the process of the gospel works in our lives. The more you read them in this light, the more they will become life to you. The more you come to see the simple truths in the parables, the more you discover the mystery of gospel truth. Remember, the gospel must come by divine revelation from God. It does not come through the wisdom and mind of man. Man could have never invented the gospel. It’s too simply for man’s religious, theological mind.