One of the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus was he would teach in parables. Parables are simple stories, metaphors, that everyone can understand which teach truths about the kingdom of God. Why is this? To make sure the message is clear without any misunderstanding as to its meaning. Parables are good because they reveal truth to those who are ready to receive the spiritual message while concealing the truth from those not ready. Non-Christians and most Jews can read the parables all day long and get nothing from it. Parables are clear only if the Holy spirit has convicted your heart of your sin. You can’t receive salvation without an invitation from the Holy Spirit.
Many of the parables we can remember from Sunday School:
1. The sower – Seed sown on good soil will give abundant crops
2. Tares in the wheat – Weeds will be separated from the wheat at the harvest and burned up
3. The fishing net – When the full net is pulled in the good fish are harvested and the bad fish thrown away.
4. The mustard seed – The smallest seed grows into the biggest plant and is like the kingdom of heaven
5. The pearl- When you find something of great value sell all you have to possess it
For the longest time I couldn’t understand why everybody isn’t a Christian because the truth is so clear to me it’s like being on the big screen at the movies. According to Scripture Satan has blinded the unbeliever and when the gospel seed is planted in the unbeliever Satan snatches the Word from their hearts before it can take root. The Jews are a special case because God has blinded them Himself until the end time because they rejected Jesus as the Messiah and crucified Him. As further punishment God allowed the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and scatter the Jewish people throughout the world for 2,000 years. The Jews are still God’s chosen people and He said He would recall them home to re-establish Israel, which happened in 1948.
Jesus proved He was God by calming the wind and walking on the sea. Jesus made it clear his coming ended the old covenant and the new covenant is through him by his shed blood on the cross. Going forward, Jesus is the new Abraham, the new Moses, who will lead his followers to salvation and set up his kingdom on earth for 1,000 years. The more truth you are exposed to the greater your accountability before God at the judgement. The saved Christian who has received the Holy Spirit and who knows God will be judged severely if he rejects God afterwards because he knows better. It would have been better for him not to have been born.