Parables Episodes

The parable: the Prodigal Son is actually about the father! This is the 3rd of a 3 part series on the Prodigal Son. Here we look at the father in the Parable.

If you read the Prodigal Son and ever sympathized with the older brother, then this podcast is for you. If you zoom out on the actual scene where Jesus is telling this, you see the pharisees off murmuring. That is the older brother... and quite possibly, you reading this. I know it was me.

Today is the first of a three part series on a Parable you may think you know well. The Prodigal Son is almost aways covered in a 30 minute bible study. That in no way let’s this text breath. Sit back, we’re going deep. You know this story. You probably think it ends at the party. It doesn’t. But before we get to the party, we have to go where the son went. Jesus wasn’t talking to runaways. He was talking to religious men at the edge of a crowd, grumbling because He ate with sinners. And ...

You have never felt lost. That might be the problem. Everyone loves the lost sheep. Nobody sees himself in the lost coin. A coin doesn’t wander. It doesn’t feel the dark. It lies on a clean floor in a familiar house, perfectly content — and perfectly lost. Jesus didn’t tell this story to the runaways. He told it to the respectable men at the edge of the crowd, murmuring because He welcomed sinners to His table — the same men He had just told, at their own table, to invite the people who could ...

Anyone who has lost a child in a crowded store knows the feeling. For about ninety seconds, nothing else exists. You don't care about the cart, and you don't care who's watching. Nobody could talk you into calming down and being grateful for everything you didn't lose. You search until you find, and when you find, you don't scold. You grab that kid and hold on. Jesus told a story like that, and most of our Bibles put a heading over it: The Parable of the Lost Sheep. But Luke never wrote that he...

I was going to apologize for the length of this podcast but I think I'll refrain. I've already listened to it twice and I think it is one I will come back to many times. Yes! I listen over and over to my own podcasts. You see, I started this journey to learn, not to teach. I hope you're riding this journey right along beside me. I'm not your pastor, I'm your brother. Our church has adopted the practice of teaching new Christians about the journey they are embarking on. It is the opposite of th...

You know this one. The invited make excuses, the poor get the seats, and everybody nods about how the outsiders got in. Read it again, and read what happened five minutes before it was told. Jesus is at a Pharisee’s table on the Sabbath. The lawyers are watching Him to catch Him. A sick man is set in front of Him and He heals him — with His hands, in full view — and sends him out the door. Then He tells the guests where to sit and tells the host whom to invite. And then one man on the couches f...

OK, imagine this revised version of musical chairs. The dress code at this party is quite formal. The game: Twelve people are invited to a dinner. Each invitation carries a number from 1 to 12 under a scratch-off panel, and the number cannot be read until the guest is at the table. The chairs are in two columns down a long table, and at the head sits the host — the man who assigned every number before anyone arrived, according to whom he wants nearest him. The guests come in and take seats, and ...

We had some fun with this chapter and I think you'll find the written narrative worth the download. If you consider the nature of teaching and learning in the 1st century, they weren't all sitting around reading scrolls. They couldn't just grab their phone, load up their favorite Bible app (we like BlueLetterBible.org). The were telling and recounting stories. So we took the Chapter of Matthew 18 and created a telling of a story as if the narrator was sitting near a 21st century campfire with h...

We grew up with the parable of the Lost Sheep. The 99 and the 1 that went astray. We all picture the return - the sheep draped across the shoulder of the shepherd. The celebration of his return. Well, if you were in my Bible study, I'd have you read ALL of Matthew 18. Don't let the parable of the lost sheep sit there without its context. You have heard this parable a hundred times. A shepherd, a hundred sheep, one lost. He leaves the ninety-nine and goes after it. You have heard it preached as...

The word "WORD" is heavier than at first glance. I heard this stated in a video. "A word is the way the inside of one person reaches the inside of another." There is a thought locked inside your head right now that nobody can see. It has no shape, no color, no sound. Then you speak and suddenly that invisible thing is in the room, crossing the air, landing inside someone else's mind. They know what you were thinking. The hidden became visible. The silent became heard. That is what a word does...

So I started today like it was going to be another Parable podcast. But it was a single line and didn't feel too difficult to grasp. I had in my notes that we were going to cover Matthew 13-51-52 as a Parable podcast but it was short and honestly didn’t need a lot of teaching. I still hold to the idea that it is not worthy of a separate parable study. But I couldn't walk past the scripture that is pointing straight back at me. And so today is a bit more of a personal deep dive into the journey ...

You might be tempted to skip this. The Lamp on the Stand is often taught as part of the Salt and Light parable from Matthew. But strip Matthew from the equation, focus only on Luke and Mark and you get a completely different take on the Parable of the Lamp on the Stand. Often, we try to harmonize texts across gospels. In this case, if you take that approach, you miss a LOT of what Luke and Mark are telling you. Let's face it, we live in a distracted world.How often do you walk into a room, or...

Perhaps the best test for watchfulness is for times when you could be wrong. We considered the possibility of the person holding on to the pretribulation rapture theology. He has a chart. He knows the order. He knows which stage he will not be here for. And it doesn't happen the way he knew it would... Jesus told His disciples something else. He sealed the hour and He said so. And then He told them exactly what they would be here for: synagogues, magistrates, delivered up, afflicted, killed. In...

They watched Him heal a man who was blind and mute, and they called it the devil. Nobody in that crowd said the man was still blind. Nobody said the demon was still there. The miracle was admitted in full. Then the men in charge — the scribes down from Jerusalem, the Pharisees who had already met to decide how to kill Him — gave it a new name. This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. They did not say it to His face. They said it to the crowd. The crowd h...

You're in a discussion and Jesus is pointing out the obvious errors of a person you recognize. The example is plain to everyone. You're all nodding up and down in concert. Yeah, I know that guy. Then something lights up in the deep dark recesses of your brain. It's only a faint spark but it's there. It is the spark of recognition, and the recognition is that Jesus is actually talking about you. Don't be ashamed... you were all nodding up and down. You are all there with the same level of convict...

He asked a question he already knew the answer to. A man who studied the law for a living stood up in a crowd and asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus sent him back to the book he had spent his life inside. And the man answered perfectly — love God with everything, love your neighbour as yourself. Word for word. Nothing missing. Jesus told him he was right, and to go do it. That should have been the end of it. It was not. Luke tells us exactly what happened next and ex...

You think it was about the ones the tower fell on. It was never about them. It was about you — the one still standing. Jesus is not preaching to a crowd of seekers here. Someone in the crowd hands Him the news: Pilate has butchered Galileans at the altar, their blood mixed with their sacrifices. And underneath the report is the oldest comfort in the world — they must have had it coming. They were worse. We’re fine. He takes it away twice. “Suppose ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above ...

You think watching means waiting. It doesn't. Picture the servant most people imagine when Jesus says watch. Standing at a window. Scanning the dark. Nervous. Counting signs. Guessing the hour. That servant has already misread the command. And Jesus is not talking to the crowd here. He is talking to His disciples — men who already call Him Lord, who have already left their nets, who already believe. This is not an altar call. It is an examination. He gives them two pictures. A master comes ho...

Jesus warns a crowd about covetousness. Then He tells a story where nothing is coveted. Read it again. No neighbor’s field. No brother’s portion. Nothing stolen. Nothing envied. The rich man deals entirely in what is lawfully his — my fruits, my barns, my goods. If covetousness means wanting what belongs to another man, this parable misses its own point. It doesn’t. You’ve been carrying the wrong definition. A man interrupts Jesus mid-sermon: Master, speak to my brother, that he divide ...

You have prayed your whole life. You still might not know how. The men who followed Jesus prayed constantly. Shema at dawn and dark. The eighteen benedictions, three times a day, every day, from childhood. They had more prayer in a week than most of us have in a year. And they watched Him pray, and said: teach us. We do not know how to do that. Sit with that. The most prayerful men alive asked a carpenter to teach them to pray. Because they had always prayed from the outside. God as King. God...

You think the Parable of the Dragnet is a threat. Look at who heard it. Matthew 13. Jesus sends the multitude away. He goes into the house. The crowd is gone. Only the disciples are left — men who dropped their nets, left the tax booth, walked away from everything. And it is to them, privately, that Jesus tells His last parable of the day. A net swept through the sea. Every kind gathered. Drawn to shore when full. The good into vessels. The bad cast away. Then He interprets it Himself. Nob...

You’ve heard this parable your whole life. Two verses. A merchant, a pearl, a sale. Simple — until you notice where Jesus said it, and to whom. Not to the crowds. Matthew is explicit: Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him (Matthew 13:36). The Pearl of Great Price was never public teaching. It was spoken behind a closed door, to twelve men who had already sold everything — boats, nets, a tax booth, the family trade. Men who had just spent th...

One verse. That is the whole parable. And almost everyone reads it as a sales pitch — Jesus persuading seekers to consider the kingdom. Read the chapter again. The crowds were already gone. Matthew 13:44 was spoken inside a house, after Jesus sent the multitude away. The only people in the room were disciples — men who had already left boats, nets, tax tables, and family businesses to follow Him. This is not an altar call. It is a word to people who had already paid everything. And they ha...