When we look to the method of parabolic teaching that Jesus
did when Jesus walked on this Earth, before he was crucified,
we find that there was many reasons why or many different
circumstances or settings that Jesus chose the method of
parabolic teaching, for example, this morning shot.
He was talking about the kingdom and how Jesus spoke to his
disciples concerning various aspects of the Kingdom.
For example, in the, in the thirteenth chapter of The
Gospel, according to Matthew we find that Jesus taught his
disciples about the kingdom in Parables.
Also, we can go back to the last week of the life of Jesus.
For example we can look to the 21st chapter of The Gospel
according to Matthew on a very significant day and that was the
day that all of those enemies of Jesus were more bold than they
had ever been in any day prior to that time.
And you remember that those enemies confronted Jesus and
they asked Jesus by what Authority.
Do you do the things that you do and who gave you that Authority
and Jesus responded to them? And then he gave them the
parable of the two sons but there were casual settings that
Jesus taught in Parables as well.
For example, one time in a fair seas home.
You remember that? Jesus was there in a woman that
was known and I don't know what it was that she was guilty of in
her life because the Bible says that anything really that goes
against the teachings, it's found in the word of God is a
sin and we don't have degrees of sin.
Even though today people try to categorize or classify sins as
great or small or somewhere in between all we know is there was
a woman and that woman was known in society as a sinner, whatever
it was that she was guilty of And you remember that as Jesus
was there in the house of that Pharisee, this woman enters the
scene with an alabaster box at she falls down at the back of
the feet of Jesus and she while weeping with tears that flowed
so much so that she washed the feet of Jesus with those tears
and she took her own hair and she wiped his feet and she
kissed his feet and she anointed his feet as well.
Remember when the Pharisee was thinking among himself or
speaking to himself? He said, truly, this cannot be a
prophet because if Jesus was a prophet, he would know the
character of the woman that is at his feet.
What did Jesus do? He gave a perfect sermon, the
parable of the two debtors, what was he illustrating?
He was illustrating that those that are forgiven much love much
another time. A lawyer's It was asked to
Jesus, you remember that Jesus was asked by this lawyer, he
said, Master meaning teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? And Jesus said what, saith the
law and how readest thou. And that lawyer said that thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy
soul, with all thy strength. And with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself. And Jesus said those How sayest
well, he said, thus do and thou shalt live.
But if all the points of clarification, this man asks, he
asks, who is my neighbor? Jesus responded with a parable,
the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Do you remember this time when Jesus settled a family dispute,
the think about it by way of context.
Jesus is preaching maybe some of his most powerful significant
sermons he's preaching about the T of Christ's, I talked about
that a little bit this morning. He was preaching about Jesus
Christ as being the Son of God. He was preaching about,
blaspheming the Holy Spirit. He was talking about heaven, he
was talking about hell. Oh, these are great subjects
that anyone you would think would like to hear and sit at
the feet of the master while he preached in those days.
But there was a man that came on the scene, a young man and he
said, As he interrupts Jesus during these great sermons and
he says, wait a minute. Now would you tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me? And Jesus said, man, I am not a
judge who made me a judge or a divider over you and such
matters. Like that and Jesus warned the
man. He said, Beware of covetousness
because the mark of a man is I paraphrase or a man's life is
not determined by the abundance of Of the things that he
possesses and then Jesus gave the masterful sermon about the
rich fool. But today we're going to talk
about something that happened in the house of a ruler of a
Pharisee. You know, I studied various
Scholars along this line and Mr. Bowles said this, about those
about this, man being a ruler or a chief among the Pharisees,
some say that he was, perhaps one of the great men in the
Sanhedrin, some say that he was Chief or ruler over certain
aspects of being a Jew. I don't know.
And Really, what he said is it's impossible to know to what
extent this man was a chief man or this man was a ruler.
All we know is this was an educated man and this was a man
of some importance in his life. This man.
No doubt at heard of the fame of Jesus, he had heard about the
reputation of Jesus, he had heard that Jesus was one who
could heal those that were sick. And so, one day on the Sabbath
day, Day. He invites.
Jesus over to his house to eat bread.
Then the Bible says, there was a certain man, you know, there's a
whole sermon in that phrase, you know what, it says that there
was a certain man that was brought there and this man was
afflicted with the Affliction of the dropsy.
One scholar said that when it says a certain man, it's talking
about something that perhaps, this man was invited
deliberately, for the purpose of testing Jesus.
This didn't just happen by happenstance.
Stan's this man. This Chief among the Pharisees
this ruler of the Pharisees. This man invites Jesus over to
his house on the Sabbath day and also invites a man that was
afflicted with a horrible condition as the King James
version. Renders it the dropsy First of
all, what's the dropsy? Maybe you've always known.
What dropsy was? I did not.
I didn't always know what the dropsy was.
I'll tell you what I've read, though.
It was something that was a condition that involved
retaining water under the skin. Another words in various parts
of the body, the body would retain water.
And one scholar said it'd be kind of like congestive heart
failure. Another words, the dropsy or
this blowing up of your body in water was really it was really
the outcome of another disease. In other words, it wasn't
curable either. You know, I've known people that
have had congestive heart failure and I'm sure you've
known folks. Like that to where their leg
swelled up. My father, had that his legs
would swell up. I mean, really, really big.
I've seen some other folks that had blown up so much that the it
actually the water came out the skin.
This was a horrible condition. It was very painful.
You can just imagine the heart of this Pharisee.
Is he brings this man before? Jesus?
Not, because he wanted Jesus to have pity on the man to heal the
man, not because he cared at all, because he wanted the test
Jesus on the Sabbath day, Jesus living under the Old Law, as a
Jew. He wanted to find out what Jesus
really going to do another words.
If Jesus would look upon this man, and he would walk.
And heal this man, then they would say now, wait a minute.
Do you really think that? It's lawful to heal a man on the
Sabbath day? After all, if you're going to
heal someone, you're going to perform some Act of work and
that's not to be done on the Sabbath day.
They also had phase two, I would say, or here's Plan B.
If Jesus came on the scene and looked at this man and didn't
heal the man, they can accuse him of being fearful of the
people. Oil.
And secondly, they can accuse him of not being compassionate.
They can accuse him of not being understanding, they can accuse
him of not being loving and of all things.
If he really had the ability to heal the man, he was holding
back and deliberately not doing it.
You know it's amazing to me. What's amazing to me is the one
that walked the face of this Earth for about 33 years that
lived his life in perfect sinless Perfection.
He knows their hearts. He examines their intentions and
he knows exactly why he is there.
You know what Jesus does, he doesn't heal the man right away.
In fact Jesus is going to ask the question first.
He says, let me ask you, do you really think that it's lawful to
heal the man on the Sabbath day? And the Bible says they could
answer not a word. You know what I thought about
the first thing that popped into my mind of another instance
where Jesus was preaching a sermon of where there were those
that could not answer a question that we talked about.
The day of controversy, you remember, when they were
challenging Jesus. You remember, when Jesus says, I
will answer your question. If you answer one of mine, the
baptism of John, was it of God or of, man?
And the Bible says that they reason one with the other and
they deduced, wait a minute, it's a lose-lose proposition.
Because if we say that it's of God, then he's going to say, why
didn't you follow him? Why didn't you listen to him?
And number two, if we say it's of, man, he said many, they
feared the people because many considered John Be a prophet.
So they said, we do not know but there was another time to
remember, when Jesus gave the parable of the of the wedding
Feast, when Jesus talked about that wedding ceremony.
What about the guy that comes in to the wedding ceremony and he
comes and sits down at the table without a proper wedding garment
on you. Remember when the king comes
out, the marriage of the King's son and when the king comes out,
he says why Aren't you wearing your wedding?
Garment and the Bible says that the man just stood there and
said nothing. Somebody said one time is kind
of like penguins they just look they just stare Kind of picture
it like that. And on this occasion, this was a
man. These, these were individuals
when Jesus asked them. The question, they said not a
word. We can just picture as they
stared back. Maybe with their mouths open.
They weren't expecting Jesus to say what he said.
Then the Bible says that Jesus heals the man now along the
line, the show, their inconsistency, After Jesus
healed the man, he says, which one of you shall have an ass or
an ox fall into the ditch on the Sabbath day and straightway
would not go down and pull him out of the ditch.
What he was saying was this you're being extremely
inconsistent here in the 12th chapter of The Gospel, according
to Matthew, Jesus dealt with a very similar thing.
In fact, the language is a little different there but it's
very similar and Jesus talks about a man and that has one
sheep a sheep and the Sheep falls into the pit or falls into
the ditch Jesus says, you know, good and well you're going to go
and pull that animal out of the pit on the Sabbath day.
Now what's Jesus is point, his point was they were accusing him
if he would heal this man on the Sabbath day of performing an act
of work thus breaking the Old Testament law.
Jesus Says, by way of your inconsistency, I know that you,
if one of your prize animals, would fall into the ditch would
go and bring him out. You wouldn't wait until the
Sabbath day was over and then go and get him.
What was his point? His point was number one.
You are placing the value. You're placing the value on an
animal more than the value of a human being.
You want to talk about being hit right in the face with it.
You are placing the value of an animal and knowing that if you
go down to bring an animal out of the pit, it's going to take a
whole lot of work and not only that, chances are you're going
to have to go get your neighbors.
You're going to have to get several people, and you're going
to have to all collectively work together to get the animal out
of the pit. Out of the ditch, whatever it
is. Completely inconsistent.
The Bible says, they could not answer to that question either,
but, you know, little did they know Jesus was brought there and
Jesus knew this. He was brought there for the
purpose of being examined by the Pharisees.
He was being examined by these individuals that day.
Little did they know though? When Jesus got there, he began
to watch them and he began to examine them as well.
And as he noted, he noticed that there were those Is that were
invited that were selecting the very best places to sit.
You know, what's interesting McGarvey says about the tables
and so forth that were chosen or used at that time, the Grecian
tables. He says this McGarvey said the
Grecian table, then in use had three sections, which were
placed together. So as to form a flat-bottomed,
you the space enclosed by the table was not occupied.
It was left vacant so that the servants might enter it.
It and attend to the wants of the guests who reclined around
the outer margin of the table. Now, on the outside with, in all
three, sections was a place of honor.
What did Jesus notice? He noticed that as he came there
that day on that particular social Gathering.
There were those among the sect of the Pharisees that were
trying to have the very best place to sit.
You ever done that get there early.
So you can have a good seat Friday night, Tina and I and the
kids went to a high school football game and I got to tell
you it would have been great if we got there earlier to have a
better seat. I didn't even get one at all.
In fact, they got a place to sit and I'm standing on the rail on
the steps that would have been a perfect indication or a perfect
time when I needed to get there earlier so that I can get a
seat. That's not what I'm talking
about. Because when I'm talking, when
I'm talking about a high school football game, I'm talking about
a place that you can go sit anywhere you want to and when
you get there first it's not a place of honor.
Its first come first serve you find a seat.
You get there early and that's your seat, good for you.
But Jesus was talking about something else he was talking
about. Something that was an
invitation. He was talking about that in the
invitation, there would be honored guests.
That would be bidden to come to, and those honored guests, that
were bidden would have places of honor and special places that
they might sit in. You know what?
Jesus recognized though, he recognized that there was people
from whatever Walk of Life that were showing up there that day
that we're all trying with Petty positioning.
Going to find the best place of honor that they might sit there
and Jesus saw them and Jesus responded in this way.
This Petty positioning the setting, he gives a parable.
Now the setting is a wedding feast and the Bible says, or
talks about the the common social event of a wedding feast.
In fact, I think I read one time when Jesus referred to a
wedding. At least eight times in the New
Testament. A time or place of Happiness.
Fellowship, Joy, Good Times a social setting places, where
people of Honor would be bidden to come.
Jesus says, well, there's this thing called A Wedding feast and
he warns when you get bidden to a place like that, don't sit
down in the best of places. He says, don't do that.
Now, this was an invitation-only event.
You know what? Jesus says, the reason for it is
he said the reason for it is if you go and you choose the very
best seat and you sit in a place of honor, then all of a sudden,
people are going to be coming in.
What are they going to do? You're sitting in the very best
seat. So the next guy comes in and
just maybe with Petty positioning, he chooses the next
best right next to you and then the next best and the best after
that. Incidentally these tables these
chair, they weren't chairs like We have around tables.
They were as one scholar said, he referred to him, simply as
couches. They reclined around the Outer
Perimeter of this three-section table.
The inside was left open for the servants to come and serve all
the guests. What's going to happen?
Jesus says, Jesus says, what's going to happen is that people
are going to come in and all of those seats are going to fill
up. and then, all of a sudden, There's going to be a fellow
that arrives at that setting that was the the the honored
guest and that man's going to come in and the man that invited
you and they're both going to walk up to you and say excuse me
Frank could you please get out of that seat?
That seed is not for you. That seat is for Bob Smith.
What did Jesus say? He says, what are you going to
do? You're going to get up and with
shame you're going to walk away. And guess what?
You've spent all this time and a seat that was not yours to have.
So by the time that all of this transpires, the only thing that
is left is the lowest place. And you are going to with shame
have to go and sit in the lowest place.
Long time ago, I thought about the lowest place. and that's
kind of, like, Right field at Dodger, Stadium behind the pole.
That's kind of the worst seat in the house.
You're you're you're now in the worst seat of all It didn't have
to be that way. But you went down and plopped
down in somebody else's seat that was not yours sold out.
Crowd filled up now, now you got what's left over.
Jesus makes the comparison if you elevate yourself to the
place or position of Honor, that is not for you to have.
Somebody else is going to come and somebody else.
Going to tell you to leave out of that place, and you with
shame are going to have to go limping off as it were to the
lowest of all places, and that's your C.
Seat. Jesus says, In verse 10.
But when thou art didn't go and sit down in the lowest room that
when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee friend, go
up higher, then shalt thou have Worship in the presence of them
that sit at meat with me. So what does he say?
Don't sit in the high place. Don't put yourself or Elevate
yourself in that position because what's going to happen?
You're going to get asked to move.
You're going to ashamed. Go take the worst seat in the
house. Now Now, what does he say to do?
Go and walk in and take the lowest place.
I want to make a point here. Mr. Bowles said something that I
think was great, reading it to this afternoon.
I want to share it with you. He said, Jesus did not mean that
you choose the lowest place. Look how humble I am.
I'm just going to give up my seat.
Look at me. Look at the humility that I
possess. In fact, this is what he said,
Mr. Bowles said that the height of arrogance is showing too much
humility. I didn't say having too much
humility. I said showing too much
humility. Now we might think I don't know
anybody like that when Jesus is talking about arrogance and he's
talking about pride and he's talking about humility and he's
talking about all of that, we don't know anybody like that.
Well, I'll tell you something, folks.
When we start thinking When we start thinking and demonstrating
to other people that we want other people to look at us and
think. Wow, they are really, they are
really humble people or a person that all of a sudden thinks that
they get something that nobody else has gotten their
discipleship, means more to them than anybody else that they get
it now. And, with tear filled eyes.
Look at my humility, All About Us.
How many times do we use this phrase, folks?
There's no other way to put it. That is arrogant.
Melody and the height of arrogance is the over
demonstration of humility drawing attention to yourself.
Jesus says, with the right heart with the right perspective, with
the right spirit with the right attitude, no, I'm going to give
that seat up to Bob. I'm going to give my seat up the
shot. Hey, What's going to happen now,
I'm sitting in the lowest seat. I was bidden to this place.
I was bidden to come to this place.
But the man that did the bidding, he shows up and says
women Frank, you're in the wrong seat.
No. Come over here with me how many
times that actually happen in life.
You go and plops it down somewhere somewhere and you kind
of sit back and you have humility and you are humble in
your heart and you're not trying to take the best seat from
somebody else. Somebody's going to say hey come
sit with us. What does Jesus say?
You're going to have worship with those that are there.
It's going to be a good and happy occasion.
And listen. What would you rather?
Have happened. Would you rather have somebody
say you're in the wrong seat? Frank get out of there and go
find the lowest place and you have to walk in front of
everybody with shame to do it. Or would you rather have
yourself over here that you placed yourself in?
And somebody says, no, why don't you come over here with me and
sit in the better seat, and we're going to enjoy this
outing. We're going to enjoy this
function, this Gathering. You know, Jesus concluded with a
maximum, there was a maximum given.
What is a maximum a maxim by definition is It's a fundamental
principle. It is a general truth, it is a
rule of conduct. A maxim is a fundamental
principle, a general truth or a rule of conduct.
This is one of the Lord's favorites.
What did he say for whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Jesus also dealt with this very thing when he talked about the
Pharisee and the Publican will not go in To that.
But Jesus dealt with that very thing.
He said that the Publican he was a man that was a sinner was
known to be an extortioner. And he all he did is he can't
even look up toward the heavens. He has so much humility in his
heart. That the Bible says that he
smote his breast as an outward sign of an inward, anguish and
sorrow and repentance. And all he can say is God, be
merciful to me a sinner. You know what Jesus said there
that's amazing. Remember the Pharisee and all
the things that he says, oh, I think they either.
I'm not as other man or extortioners and but be all for
even as him. You know what Jesus said?
Jesus said that one man went away Justified.
The other did not. The word Justified means to have
acquitted. That's like when you go into a
court of law and you're on trial, if you're acquitted,
you're acquitted of the crime that Publican was acquitted of
his sinful crime, the other man he went away with all of his
wonderful attributes, but he also took something else with
him too. He took his sins with him.
Jesus said it there again about humbling ourself or exalting
ourselves. And it was spoken, when Jesus
was teaching his disciples, not to be like the scribes and the
Pharisees, in Matthew chapter 23, it is also found in the Old
Testament, scriptures, as well in Proverbs chapter 18 and verse
12. The Bible says Before
Destruction, the heart of a man is haughty and before honor is
humility in Proverbs 29 and 23. A man's Pride shall bring him
low but honors shallop old the humble.
In spirit. It was also repeated in the New
Testament in James chapter 4 and verse 6, where it says, but he
giveth more grace wherefore, he saith God, resisteth the proud,
but giveth Grace, unto the humble.
Well lastly let's apply the parable, you know, there's an
application to every single Parable, every single sermon
that Jesus ever preached and if we miss the application, we
missed the whole meaning of the entire sermon.
Here's the application. We learned number one, the
dangers of Pride. How many times have we heard?
Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 18 quoted like this Pride goeth
before a fall? Well, that's a true statement.
But that's not what the Bible says.
It says something. That's even words that are
harsh. More harsh than that, more
severe than that more strict than that.
It doesn't say. Pride goes before a fall.
It says Pride goeth Before, Destruction and a haughty spirit
before a fall. They think about it.
I don't know what you think about when you think about
destruction. But I think blown up, I think
destroyed I think ruined. I think completely obliterated
Pride goes Before Destruction. It says, and a haughty spirit
before a fall, the danger of pride is not just in Social
settings either as per the parable, but especially in our
relationships with God, the Lord hates Pride.
Proverbs 8:13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil pride
and arrogancy and the evil way and the froward The froward
mouth. Do I hate there are things that
God hates. He hates Pride, he hates it.
When Brethren sow, Discord, among Brethren he hates lying
tongues. There's many things that the
Lord hates And we talked about God, we're talking about a being
that it's impossible for him to lie.
It's impossible for him to sin and when you and I have hate, we
need to be careful. That's a different kind of hate.
We have hate that's different than God.
We're not on the same plane or level with God, but God hates
Pride. We also find that Jesus would
say in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 30 to on the great
Sermon on the Mount that this Pride will defile a man.
Jesus said not every one that says to me.
Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth, the will of My Father, which is in heaven.
Jesus said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name and in thy name, cast out devils.
And in thy name, done many wonderful works.
And Then will I profess unto them?
I never knew you depart from me. Ye that work iniquity.
Folks, we must always remember. First John chapter 2 verses 15
through 17 says that pride is not of the father but pride is
of the world. Secondly, we learn that from
this Parable. The flip side of all this and
that is the importance of humility.
People don't say that today. People say you got to take care
of number, one people say in society, if you don't take care
of yourself and if you don't support yourself who's going to
do it, now, I don't believe for one minute that we need to walk
around in life with no confidence whatsoever.
I don't think that's a Biblical principle at all.
And when the Bible talks about lowering our self and submitting
to somebody else, it's not saying that we are floor.
Mats. We throw ourselves down the
ground. Beat ourselves up and hate are
self. That's a sin by The way to Hate
Yourself. Nowhere in the scriptures.
Does it say that you have to have no confidence whatsoever in
yourself? What it says is that humility is
what we need to try to achieve in our life as opposed to Pride
and when it talks about preferring one another, it
doesn't mean that I want to hang out with Terry which I do
doesn't mean. I'd rather hang out with Terry
than somebody else. It means if I prefer Terry I am
putting Terry before me. And that's exactly what Jesus
talked about. In this Parable.
Put yourself aside step aside, step out of the equation.
Put somebody else first Always be like that in your dealings,
with your brethren with your fellow man.
The Lord blesses, those that are humble in Proverbs chapter 3 and
verse 34, the Bible says surely, he scorned with the scorners but
he giveth Grace unto. The lowly humility.
Also is a mark of wisdom. Now, I know that goes against
the grain of today but humility is a mark of wisdom.
Now, that doesn't mean that's not false.
Humility. That's not.
Look, I'm really I really I'm really wise really humble?
No sincere. Humility is the mark of wisdom.
I don't know about you folks, but I'll tell you this.
Every single time in my life, that I thought that I had all
the wisdom that I needed that, I thought on a particular subject.
Whatever. That is any time that I thought
that I had any particular subject, all figured out that I
had come just as far as I could go along that line.
I don't know about you, maybe that's not the case in your
life, but every single time when I had that mentality and that
attitude life, Slam me right back to the ground and I came to
the realization. I didn't know half of what I
thought I knew. When we think that we've got it
all figured out, whether it's in anything in life, life has a way
of slamming us right back down and to the ground, putting our
feet back on the ground life. Does that?
But never ever let it be that we allow that kind of a heart or an
attitude or Spirit enter us. When we talk about our
Christianity, especially when we think we've got, it figured out
more than somebody else. Because I'm going to tell you
something, folks. There's a whole lot of babes in
Christ. And if it's true, that a person
has to be a member of the Lord's church for 25-30 years before
they get it, and they get it now and they didn't get it before.
That means no babe in Christ to go to heaven.
No, babe in Christ can be a disciple of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. And that goes against the grain
and the teachings that are found in the New Testament, every babe
in Christ, that is following this pattern at to the best of
their ability. All the way up to someone that
can endure strong meat meat of the word to the very best of
their ability. They get it.
They understand it and they're trying to serve God and I'm at a
something you never graduate ever.
You never do. There is no diploma there is in
heaven. That's it.
If there's a diploma or degree to be given, it's the reward
that we will all have that none of us will ever earn, but it's
the reward that we will all have on that last and final day when
Jesus says, this one was mine, When I, when we hear the
wonderful words, well done, thou good and faithful servant enter
into the joy of thy, Lord, and forever.
Be with the Lord, that's graduation day.
If anything in the world, that's it, that's the ceremony. because
folks, if we ever think that we just reach a point in this life,
when we've got it, all dialed in, That's the height of
arrogance. And man we got so much more to
learn if nothing else about humility that Jesus spoke about
a long time ago. We thank you for listening to
our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.
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