Why did Jesus often teach through parables? And how should we interpret these vivid stories? Today, R.C. Sproul defines the purpose of parables and begins to examine the rich truths they reveal about Christ and His kingdom. Get R.C. Sproul’s teaching series The Parables of Jesus on DVD, lifetime digital access to the messages and study guide, and his booklet What Do Jesus’ Parables Mean?, all for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3912/donate Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
Why is Jesus' teaching considered unique?
His own contemporaries said of him, no man has ever taught the way he does. And even some of his enemies said that he speaks as one who has authority and not like the scribes and the Pharisees. The teaching of Jesus is not frivolous. It's not superficial. There's not a desultory word that ever comes from His lips. Everything that He says has substance to it.
Everything that He says carries the very weight of His own authority.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus was a masterful teacher. As you just heard from R.C. Sproul, his teaching even caught the attention of his enemies. But did he always teach in order that all of his hearers would understand? Welcome to a new week on Renewing Your Mind. This week, Dr. Sproul will be walking us through several of Jesus' parables.
These messages are from his 12-part series, The Parables of Jesus, and we'd like to send it to you along with his title, What Do Jesus' Parables Mean? So please be sure to call us this week with a donation of any amount at 800-435-4343, and we'll get this resource bundle in the mail for you. So what are parables?
Are they like an illustration in a sermon so that everyone can better understand the meaning of the teaching? Or is there more to their purpose? Here's Dr. Sproul.
Tonight we're going to begin a brand new series entitled The Parables of Jesus. And what I intend to do in our times together is first of all give a brief explanation and definition of what a parable is and how those parables were used by Jesus in His earthly ministry. And then after that brief introduction, it is my plan to give an exposition of eleven
parables that I have selected for this course. Now Jesus gave many more parables than those eleven, but in the time constraints that we have for this series, we're going to focus our attention on just eleven of them. Let me begin by saying I think that it's safe to say that our Lord Jesus Christ was the greatest teacher that ever walked on the face of the earth.
And I say that not only because he was the very incarnation of truth and so that the content of his teaching was altogether impeccable and was of divine origin, but not only was he the greatest teacher that ever lived because of the supreme content that he delivered, but also he was a master pedagogue. That is, his style of teaching was extraordinary.
His own contemporaries said of him, no man has ever taught the way he does. And even some of his enemies said that he speaks as one who has authority. and not like the scribes and the Pharisees. Now let me just pause for a second and comment briefly on that statement that Jesus spoke as one having authority.
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