Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB00010A
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00:21 Hi, welcome to the Books of Book series here at 3ABN.
00:24 I'm Glenn Russell, your host. 00:25 Let's meet our teacher, Dr. Ranko Stefanovi?. 00:28 Ranko, it's a great journey 00:30 going through this Gospel of Matthew. 00:32 We got a lot ahead of us still. 00:35 What's been your experience 00:36 as we've been doing this here at 3ABN? 00:39 You've been a guest here before, 00:41 you'll be a guest again. 00:42 Tell us a little bit about this ministry, 00:44 you know, it's just been a joy for me. 00:46 How's it been for you? 00:47 Yeah, every time when I try to explain 00:51 the Gospel of Matthew, 00:53 I learn always something, and for me, 00:55 it's a growing spiritual experience. 00:57 And another aspect, 00:58 I really want to tell the viewers, 01:01 is to be with these wonderful people here. 01:03 I'm so much motivated to see how much they sacrifice, 01:06 how much they have a passion for this ministry. 01:09 We have to support it. 01:10 We have to do everything to make this program 01:14 and this-- This ministry-- 01:17 This ministry, we have to make it really work. 01:20 Let's pray together as we begin our study. 01:23 Lord, we pray for 3ABN Television Ministry. 01:26 We pray for each viewer. 01:28 And Lord, we pray that now as we open Your word 01:31 that You'll be our teacher, that You'll be our guide. 01:34 We need Your Holy Spirit to help us understand 01:37 this wonderful gift of scriptures, 01:40 in Your name we pray, amen. Amen. 01:43 Ranko, we have been looking at Jesus. 01:45 We've noticed that 01:46 He is a powerful teacher and preacher, 01:49 but He's also a doer. He is a healer. 01:51 He's involved in ministry. 01:53 He is a Savior and compassionate. 01:55 He is one who fulfills 01:57 those many prophecies of the Messiah. 02:00 So Matthew has been painting this portrait of his Savior, 02:05 the one he followed as we say last time. 02:07 Give us a little idea of what do we begin 02:10 to see here in Chapter 13. 02:14 When we go to the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, 02:16 do you remember what we read in Chapter 4, 4:23? 02:20 That Jesus went and He was teaching in the synagogues. 02:25 People were there, coming to the synagogue, 02:27 Jesus would teach them. 02:30 But more and more, 02:31 with every passing week the opposition 02:36 were rising against Jesus. 02:39 And the last time, we started in Chapter 11 02:42 that actually the Pharisees for the first time 02:46 stood in the position to Jesus 02:48 calling actually His work as the work of Satan. 02:53 And Jesus for the first time had to address 02:55 the Pharisees in the harsh way to give them warning 02:59 telling them that the blasphemy 03:01 against the Holy Spirit will never be 03:03 forgiven to any person, He meant to them, okay? 03:07 In this world or the world to come. 03:10 And actually, if we go to the rest of Chapter 12, 03:14 we will see that Jesus really made 03:17 those harsh things against the Pharisees. 03:19 So the door of the synagogues, 03:23 they were becoming more and more close, close to Jesus. 03:27 Jesus could not come to the synagogues 03:28 and teach any longer. 03:30 Jesus would go to the open space 03:32 and gives the teachings. 03:34 So can you imagine, Jesus is there teaching. 03:38 Who is there? We have people, 03:40 sometimes 1,000s of them, but on the other side 03:42 there are Pharisees spying on Jesus, 03:46 watching and measuring every word to Jesus said. 03:50 It is at that point that Jesus 03:52 changes the method of His teaching. 03:55 It must have been a sad and oppressive thing 03:58 that all the time 03:59 He's having to watch and worry about what He says. 04:02 Every word measured. 04:03 Because someone's trying to get you. 04:04 And you know, some of you may live 04:06 in a situation in a marriage, 04:08 in a work situation where it's tense 04:10 and you always have to be careful 04:12 because somebody's gonna take 04:13 what you say and twist it around. 04:16 Jesus knows what you're going through. 04:17 He experienced opposition much greater 04:20 and much greater extent. 04:21 Okay, Glenn, can I tell you something? 04:24 We are all the students of the Bible 04:25 and sometimes we study the Bible, 04:27 we discover the beautiful things about Bible 04:30 and we tried to proclaim it, 04:31 and it's so hard sometimes to go 04:33 and to preach it when you know 04:35 that they're people just sitting there, 04:36 instead of trying to see those nuance in the Bible, 04:39 they measure every word to find what is wrong, 04:42 to find one detail to disagree, et cetera. 04:44 This is such an experience that Jesus, 04:46 that Jesus went through. 04:49 May I read the beginning of Chapter 13. 04:50 "On the same day Jesus went out from the house 04:52 and sat by the sea and great multitudes 04:54 were gathered together to Him, 04:56 so that He got into a boat and sat, 04:58 and the whole multitude stood on the shore." 05:00 And then here's something new in verse 3. 05:02 "Then He spoke many things to them in parables." 05:05 Actually in Greek, it says, He began. 05:09 He started teaching them in parables, 05:12 so this is really the beginning. 05:13 Prior to that, we don't have any parables of Jesus. 05:16 We had short metaphors like to build us 05:19 in the summit of the mount, but not parables. 05:21 Now, for the first time, 05:22 we have Jesus changes the method of His teaching. 05:25 So we have to ask why, what's the reason? 05:27 First, let's explain what the parable really is. 05:30 The word parable in English 05:32 comes from the Greek, parabola. 05:35 Para means by or beside. 05:38 Bola means to cast. 05:39 So what is the meaning of the parable? 05:41 It means to cast beside. 05:43 You see, you have a saying which is enigmatic, 05:46 difficult and hard time to understand. 05:49 Then you cast, you put, 05:51 you throw an illustration beside 05:54 and that illustration really provides 05:57 the insight in that hard saying 06:00 what you're trying to say. This is what a parable is. 06:02 Parable is simply given to illustrate 06:05 something that is usually 06:06 hard to understand or hard to explain. 06:10 All right, so we got an idea of the word. 06:14 Why does He use this teaching technique? 06:16 So evidently, we already provide 06:18 that little bit of background. 06:21 There is a two-fold reason 06:24 and purpose of Jesus teaching parables. 06:27 The first one we saw, 06:29 it's because there are many spies measuring every word, 06:34 trying to distort everything 06:36 what Jesus said and spread them among the people, 06:39 so the first reason, 06:40 why Jesus used the parables was to disarm the hostility 06:45 of the listeners to introduce the teaching 06:48 and that Jesus could not be accused of something saying 06:51 that was inappropriate, 06:53 that was against the tradition, et cetera. 06:55 You know, you use the parable. 06:57 And you illustrate that saying, but people-- 07:03 you cover yourself in many different ways. 07:06 So it was a way of teaching truth 07:07 but hiding some dimension because of the opposition. 07:10 Yes. All right? 07:12 There is also the second reason 07:14 why Jesus used the parables. 07:16 And it was to illustrate and to explain the truth. 07:21 This is really the main reason why Jesus used the parables. 07:26 So please, Glenn, allow me just to explain 07:30 what we mean that. 07:31 Number one, is to create interest among the listeners. 07:35 You know when pastor is there on the pulpit 07:37 and wants to attract the attention of the people, 07:39 you start using illustration and parable. 07:42 Boy, suddenly everybody is listening. 07:45 All ages, we all love it. 07:47 All the ages, children and adults. 07:49 Number one-- number two, 07:51 to create a truth concrete 07:53 through the commonly familiar real experience. 07:56 Jesus associated the truth with daily tasks. 07:59 I think that's such an important point, 08:00 Ranko, you're saying that, 08:01 Jesus in His observation of human life 08:04 found connections to heavenly things. 08:06 So heavenly things were explained through earthly. 08:08 Can you imagine, 08:10 I stand to preach here in North America 08:11 and I use illustration about the soccer game? 08:14 Yeah, that's not relevant to the people. 08:16 But if I use baseball, everybody will listen to that. 08:19 It's just, you know, an example. 08:22 Jesus used the illustration from daily life of people, 08:27 farmers, sowing the seed, fisherman, a fish, 08:31 women who are baking bread, et cetera. 08:33 So this is very important. Number three, 08:37 parables could be understood by everybody. 08:40 Everybody. 08:42 Children, adults, everybody can understand parables. 08:45 Number four, to clarify the message by teaching 08:48 unknown through known. 08:50 The Kingdom of God is like. Okay. 08:56 The next one, to enable listeners 08:58 to discover the truth for himself or herself. 09:02 This is not in the Gospel of Matthew. 09:04 You remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? 09:07 Who is my neighbor? 09:09 Can you imagine if Jesus said to that person, 09:11 even Samaritan is your neighbor. 09:15 And the explanation of Jesus 09:16 would be rejected from the very start. 09:18 So you're saying a parable 09:19 takes the listener on the journey 09:22 and they become part of the exploration of-- 09:24 Jesus asked that person, 09:26 so who was the neighbor of these people who said, 09:29 "Do you want to help him?" 09:30 He did not want to use Samaritan. 09:33 Jesus said, "You go and do likewise." 09:36 Parable is a powerful tool. 09:38 And the last one, 09:40 to make listeners discover the truth for themselves 09:42 and to judge their own action. 09:46 By entering into the store. Entering, yes, yes. 09:49 It reflects back on themselves. 09:50 Reflects back. Okay. So we see this wonderful 09:53 concept of parables that He uses. 09:56 And what a lesson for us today. 09:58 I think all of us we, you know, 10:00 as you share your faith with someone, 10:01 you have someone you love, a family member, 10:03 someone at work, a neighbor, 10:05 You're looking for those connecting points. 10:07 You're looking for those things 10:09 that that will help you illustrate the things of faith 10:12 that mattered so much to you. This is part of mission. 10:15 This is part of service and ministry. 10:17 Yeah, I was-- several years ago, 10:22 I was at one scholarly meeting 10:25 and I heard how scholars were talking among themselves. 10:27 They said, "Boy, all these beautiful findings 10:33 that we bring out of the Bible." 10:35 They said, "We're talking to ourselves. 10:38 How we can make it available to the people?" 10:40 And then the conclusion was, you know, 10:42 these are scholarly people 10:44 don't want to listen to such things. 10:46 And they started discussing and said, 10:48 "But how is that?" And they mentioned some series 10:52 that are really based on stories. 10:55 How they have really great success 10:59 among ordinary people? 11:00 And then they asked, "Why don't we do something 11:02 similar about the Bible studies?" 11:05 And it impacted my teaching. 11:07 When I'm in the classroom, 11:09 of course, sometimes, theology, 11:12 exegesis can be hard and can be boring. 11:17 But I learned something from Jesus. 11:19 I try always to use illustrations. 11:23 Everything what we go 11:25 and deal with the text and try to explain, 11:27 I support it with illustration. 11:30 And boy, my students or my camp meeting audience, 11:35 or when you preach a different church as they said, 11:37 "Wow, suddenly that difficult text becomes clear. 11:41 It becomes close, close to you." 11:43 All over the world and all the cultures stories work. 11:45 And God keeps using stories, yes. 11:47 That's what the Bible is. Yes. 11:48 A Book of the Story of Redemption, you know. 11:51 So Jesus uses these parables. 11:52 He spoke many things to them in parables. 11:55 Now it's interesting you mentioned 11:56 that the parable helps people understand for themselves 12:01 but apparently some people 12:03 didn't always understand, others did. 12:05 So there is some hiddenness 12:07 that sometimes He explains to disciples privately. 12:10 There are some parts of the story 12:11 that not everybody understands publicly. 12:14 So it's quite complex and a wonderful tool 12:18 that He uses to communicate His message. 12:21 Yeah. Talking about the parables, 12:25 we have to understand 12:27 that Jesus did not invent always those parables. 12:31 There are books written. 12:32 And you can see, that many of the parables 12:34 that actually Jesus spoke were already used 12:37 by Rabbis, et cetera, but what Jesus did. 12:39 Jesus simply didn't go and took those parables. 12:42 Jesus always changed their meanings. 12:46 If those parables that Rabbis preached 12:47 where negative, you know, 12:49 Jesus always turned into a positive, et cetera. 12:52 So Jesus really was in the line 12:54 of the common trend of teaching, 13:00 but actually what Jesus did, 13:03 it's something that couldn't be compared 13:05 with any teaching of the Rabbis or any other teachers 13:10 that were during those time delivering their teachings. 13:15 So what Jesus did really was a unique during that time. 13:18 No wonder, no wonder, you have 5,000 people, 13:22 you have 4,000 people. 13:24 For three days, there were almost 13:26 mesmerized by Jesus' teaching. 13:28 They were sitting there. 13:29 They even forgot on their daily necessities like food. 13:31 They have not eaten for three days 13:33 by listening there to Jesus. 13:35 And they responded, they responded, 13:37 they decided to follow Jesus and to be His disciples. 13:40 It says here that the multitude 13:42 stood on the shore to listen to Jesus. 13:44 There was not enough room for them. 13:46 And so this shows the response 13:50 Jesus had a hearing to the people. 13:52 He was speaking to their needs, 13:53 not something irrelevant, 13:54 far off abstract things as you said. 13:56 He took abstract things and brought them 13:59 close into their world, into their lives. 14:01 Through the parables, 14:03 Jesus brought the heavenly truth down to the earth 14:06 that people can understand and accept it. 14:08 Well, I want to learn a little bit more about those parables. 14:10 We're gonna take a break right now 14:11 and then we're gonna come back 14:13 and explore a little bit more 14:14 of Chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew. 14:17 We'll be right back. |
Revised 2014-12-17