Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I'd like to talk to you about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. The Christian faith in all instances comes down to the life of Jesus of Nazareth, doesn't it?

So we at New Geneva want to commend to you a continuation of a study that we started last year. Those of you with some memory of this program might remember that we began last year a series that we entitled The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth. And it turned out to be far more successful than I thought it would be. For a number of reasons. First of all, because there's nothing like studying the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

If you love your Savior, if you love Jesus and you've come to know him, then there's no end of being with him. There's no end of studying his life and the meaning of his life because it's like a stone thrown into a pond. The ripples of the life of Jesus of Nazareth flow out from his walking the paths of Judah and Galilee, his walking the streets of Jerusalem, preaching and teaching, healing, doing miracles. The implications of all of this ripple, if you will, not just like the ripples in a pond that soon pan out. But the ripples of the life of Jesus of Nazareth continue to ripple and to build into waves and into a tsunami at the end of days.

So to study the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth is to understand our times, to understand times in the future, to understand times in the past, the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, which is what we began last year at New Geneva. And I thought, well, we can extend this over the course of our teaching year, which lasts from October through May. But lo and behold, the interest was so great that we barely got through a third, maybe a quarter to a third of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. And we've decided to continue then during our teaching year, this series on the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, those of you that were with us may remember our format. And that was one of the things that contributed to the success of that series was our format. Now, usually on our Wednesday night Bible study, we conducted at the church in our fellowship hall, and that has been very successful over the years, primarily for our members and regular attenders and the occasional visitor. But last year, we decided to go ahead and extend this Bible study into the homes of our people on Wednesday night. And that has done a great deal toward encouraging fellowship in the life of the church and visitors, too.

So we want to extend that invitation again, in particular to visitors. Now, some of you have been listening to our program for years now, really, some of you, and many years, decades, perhaps, because I hesitate to think how long I've been on the air, wearing out the airwaves with our program. But many of you have been loyal and faithful and you call in from time to time and give me encouragement. But what I'd like to do with this extension of our study, The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, is to go ahead and invite you to one of our homes, satellites, if you will, of our fellowship hall, and invite you to our study this year.

You'll be able to pick up right away where we have left off, and you'll enjoy fellowship. One home in particular got into the habit of making some beverages and homemade bread, too. That homemade bread has been a very, very tasty refreshment. I come for the bread, if nothing else. We've got bread on the table, and we've got the bread of life that we put out for you, too, which is the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.

So we would like to invite you to this format, as well as the study itself, because they work together so very well. With our format, having it in people's living rooms, we have found that it encourages people to open up, you know, less formal. You're not in a church setting, so you don't have to be intimidated by being in church, but you're in one of our people's living rooms. And a friendly atmosphere, and an atmosphere in which you can share your opinions freely. There's no right, there's no wrong, there's no condemnation, there's no judgment for what you bring and what you contribute, for what you learn.

I learned incredible things. I've been a pastor for 30 years, and I learned quite a bit more than I thought I would in our study. So there's no end to the learning, and there's no judgment, there's no condemnation for the opinions that you bring as well. Hopefully we find, as we look at the text, that's our authority, is the text of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We discover the life and times of Jesus, the Messiah.

We come to know him better, we come to love him better, and hopefully you will find that experience as well. And what I'd like you to do is commend to you calling us and finding out the nearest home at which you can meet fellowship. And at which you can fellowship, we will be beginning in October, probably the second week in October. I'm not quite sure of the date, but I'll know by the time you call. Okay.

And our phone number in order to reserve a place, and we want to get a sense for how many people are going to be where. So we would appreciate you calling us at area code 208-523-0196. That's our church phone. And I will get back to you and let you know when we're beginning and where you can plan on meeting myself and others in our congregation. Our congregation is aware of this and preparing to provide a hospitable atmosphere in which to study the Word of God and to fellowship with other believers.

If you're not a believer, if you're an inquirer, for example, you're not entirely convinced of the gospel, you're not entirely convinced of who this Jesus of Nazareth is, then we want to provide an atmosphere for you to explore and discover. Once again, no judgment, no condemnation for what you believe and what you think. We are looking for input. We're looking for what your thoughts are. Start where you are.

We don't expect you to be a New Testament scholar or anything like that, but rather an inquirer, a student, a perhaps hopefully a lover of the Lord Jesus Christ, one who knows him and is committed to him even as he has been committed to us. And what we're going to do then is take up where we left off last year, and that was right before one of the climaxes, one of the crescendos of the gospel, and that is Peter's confession of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, as the Christ. And then we're going to embark upon a study of the parables of Jesus Christ, one of those areas in Jesus' ministry where he was committed to teaching.

In fact, they say, you know, the New Testament says that Jesus began to teach with parables, and he spoke to, he did not speak to them, Mark says, he did not speak to them without a parable. So parables were a central component of Jesus' ministry. And if we're going to understand the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, then we need to understand what the parables mean. And they were unfolded by Jesus. They were taught by Jesus.

Without a parable, he didn't bother to teach them, and he did this for a purpose. And the gospel of Mark in chapter 4 tells us why he taught in parables. For example, when he told the parable of the sower, you remember the seed that is cast, that is scattered, and it falls on four different kinds of soils. And after he had told that parable, when he was alone with his disciples, he explained why he did so. And let me read that for you.

This is from Mark chapter 4, and beginning at verse 10. After telling the parable of the sower, the text says, And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables. Now you must understand the nature of parables in the ancient world. They were often mysterious, they were often enigmatic, and they were often meant to hide as much as they conceal.

And a true, thoughtful person who was seeking God sought to understand parables. This is as true in the Old Testament as it is in the New. Many people don't realize that the prophets often spoke in parables to not only conceal from those who were about to be destroyed in judgment in the destruction of Jerusalem, but also he told parables for those who were genuinely repentant and sought on the living God of Israel, Yahweh. Well, Jesus does the same thing. And he says then to his disciples, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything is in parables.

And then he tells a parable. In verse 12, he says, So that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. Lest they should turn and be forgiven. Jesus told a parable of one of the prophets of the Old Testament. We have just been telling you that the Old Testament is as larded with parables as is the New Testament.

And to demonstrate that, Jesus goes on to tell a parable of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of Isaiah. In fact, it was Isaiah's mission not to convert, not to turn in repentance, but rather to harden the hearts of his generation. He wouldn't get a single convert, Isaiah. And God told him this parable to describe his ministry. And Jesus says he does the same thing, piggybacking on Isaiah.

Then he does the same thing in this parable. That is, he tells parables, and then he tells a parable, that they may indeed see, but not perceive. And they may indeed hear, but not understand. Lest they should turn and be forgiven, unquote. So the purpose of the parables of Jesus is as much to conceal as to reveal.

Destined then for hardness of heart, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Jewish leaders, those who refused to repent. And this, indeed, God knows. God could see. In fact, God had ordained that they may indeed see. That is, they may see Jesus.

They may see the miracles he does. They may see the wondrous teachings that he unfolds. And they may hear these things as well, but not understand. See, but not perceive. That is, in seeing, they do not see the reality, the spiritual truth behind what he teaches in his parables.

Lest they should turn and be forgiven, i.e., they were destined for destruction. They were destined for judgment. Indeed, if they had understood, if they had seen and perceived, if they had indeed heard and understood, they would have turned and repented and thus be forgiven. But this is indeed for the disciples, rather. This is indeed for those who love him, for whom God had previously opened their ears and unstopped their ears and opened their eyes so that they might indeed understand and turn and be forgiven.

Jesus will tell parables for this dual purpose, as much to conceal as to reveal. And this you can't get around. If you have a soft and sentimental view of Jesus as if, oh, all he ever wanted to do was make people feel good and save people. Well, no, he also intended to judge and condemn those who were lost and hard of heart. And the telling of parables is as much a part of Jesus' ministry in this regard as it is to open eyes.

But he also intended to open eyes and to teach and to upbuild and to lift up his disciples. For he goes on to say, he said to them right after telling this parable from Isaiah, he says, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? Because the secret of the kingdom, as Jesus said, the secret of the kingdom had been given to them. And Jesus then goes on to explain in great detail the parable of the sower, right?

And begins to describe what that means in terms of the sowing of the word. So dear listener, we will be embarking on a study of the parables of Jesus and his ministry so that we might understand more closely the nature of the kingdom of God. So many of the parables describe the nature of the kingdom of God and reveal to us the thrust of Jesus' ministry throughout his life. And so we will be taking on the parables of the Lord Jesus to see what they teach us about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, how full his life was. And we'll begin to see, indeed, as the gospels tell us, he didn't teach without teaching of the parable.

We scratch our heads sometimes and say, well, there are plenty of times that Jesus didn't use parables. There's one that may appear to be this way and one that's very pertinent to the understanding and confession of Peter that, who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Then Jesus asks his disciples, and Peter is the first one there to say, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, right? Well, before this, we are given a cue as to the revelation of Jesus as the Messiah to the disciples.

And this is done through a parable. And it may not seem on the surface to be a parable at first, but indeed it is a parable, for we find the semantic range of the word parable is very broad and covers a great deal of the ministry and teaching of Jesus. For example, once again, from the Gospel of Mark, we have Mark chapter 8, when they come to Bethsaida, just before the confession of Jesus as the Christ, I might add. And I begin at verse 22 of Mark chapter 8. And they came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him.

Understand that blindness was often a metaphor for the inability to see the things of God. Well, they come to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. And when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see men, but they look like trees walking.

Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Oh, dear listener, was this just a false start in Jesus' healing ministry where he didn't heal him completely at first, right? He spits in his eyes, on his eyes, excuse me, and asks the guy and touches him, right? And he says, do you see anything? And this blind man looks up and says, I see men, but they look like trees walking.

Oh, my goodness. Was Jesus just ineffective in his healing? Was this just a partial healing, and he had to do it twice in order for this guy to be healed? Was Jesus' power just not up to par that day? No, I tell you, this is a parabolic healing.

Parable, the idea of the semantic range, that is the field of meaning, the stretch of the cover of meaning of this word parable is very broad, and it includes actions as well as words. Parables are not just words. Parables are also actions, and this is a parabolic action on the part of Jesus. This is a parabolic healing on the part of Jesus in order to teach us something, in order to teach us about the nature of Jesus' mission. That is, people don't see all of who and what he is immediately and all at once.

Jesus, the period of time that we have been covering in the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth has been a gradual revealing of this man, a gradual revealing of the Messiah. That is, in bits and pieces, not all at once, even as this man was not healed all at once. He didn't see all at once, but in a gradual healing, so people do not see Jesus of Nazareth for who he is all at once, but in a gradual revelation. That is what this parable teaches us about the nature of Jesus' ministry. I see men, but they look like trees walking, right?

He did not see wholly. He did not see clearly all at once, but Jesus is healing him in stages, even as he revealed himself to his generation in stages. And then he goes on to say, then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Indeed, this blind man saw everything clearly after that. Now, coincidentally, ironically, what is it that we encounter in the very next set of texts?

That is Peter's confession of Jesus as the Christ. Verses 27 to 30, Jesus went on with his disciples to the village of Caesarea Philippi, and on the way he asked his disciples, who do people say that I am? And they told him, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets, right? This is that indistinct seeing of Jesus and who he is. Indeed, he is a prophet, is he not?

In the train, in the line of the prophets of the Old Testament, and he is most recently in the line and train of John the Baptist, but he is none of these, is he? That is, even as the blind man saw in the first stage men looking like trees walking. So Jesus' generation, his disciples, saw indistinctly at first who Jesus was. Indeed, a great man, one of the prophets. But then he goes on to say, Jesus, and he asked them, but who do you say that I am?

And Peter answered him, you are the Christ. Aha, bingo. It is like the second stage of the healing of the blind man. That is, he saw everything clearly after the second pass, if you will. And so it is.

That parable was told precisely before this to show how Jesus is seen as the Christ by his disciples in gradual stages. So it is with the nature of his ministry. And so it is with the nature of parables. This is the point of my teaching today, is that the parables teach us much about Christ and the nature of his ministry and the nature of who he is. Do you see why the parables are important, dear listener?

It is part and parcel of his ministry, part and parcel of who Jesus of Nazareth is. We are looking at the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. And so we will be looking at the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth in our Wednesday night Bible study during the course of our teaching year. We will be looking, taking up here at the confession, Peter's confession of Jesus.

We will be beginning there and looking at the parable that precedes it and then launching out into the sea of the teachings of Jesus in his parables, because we can learn so much about the nature of parables and what they mean and the depth into which they go as well, because there are contours, there are features, there are depths, there are layers to the parables and their teaching and the nature of the kingdom of God, too. They have to do with eschatology. They have to do with salvation and redemption. They have to do with the nature of the kingdom of God. They have to do with the nature of Christ himself.

So the parables are very important. And if we're going to understand the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth, then we are going to have to understand the nature of parables and their teachings. And we'll be doing this then in our Wednesday night Bible study beginning the second week in October. I'll give you exact dates and times and places as well.

Because as I pointed out to you in the beginning of this period, we have decided, and we've done so successfully last year, we decided to decentralize our Wednesday night Bible study instead of having it in our fellowship hall at the church, which we've done in the past and done so very successfully. We have found great success, especially with the nature of this teaching year, where we're looking at the life and times of Jesus the Messiah. This teaching in people's homes, which is what we're doing, has been very conducive to fellowship and learning. So what we would like to do is invite you.

We want to facilitate this in particular for visitors and for friends of New Geneva who have maybe been considering crossing our threshold, but just haven't yet. Maybe you've been procrastinating in your own soul here about this in the past, but we would like to invite you to finally trigger your incentive to cross our threshold. And you can do it in a non-threatening way, in a very warm and open way, by coming into the homes of our people. And we have several very hospitable homes that are very much open to having you cross their threshold and then join us in our study.

And it's going to be one in which we very informally teach the parables of Jesus and invite your reflection and your response. And then you'll also have the advantage then of my study and teaching and passion. I'm very passionate about the life and times of Jesus the Messiah. I'm very passionate about my Lord who has saved me. And he has done so by walking the paths and ways of Galilee and Judah, walking the streets of Jerusalem.

And during those days and times, he set up an example of life for us. And not only set up an example, but set up a sacrifice of his life on our behalf, the Lamb of God. Indeed, he was and is. So we want to look at the life and times of Jesus the Messiah with you. And so we invite you to join us on Wednesday evenings this year in the homes of our people.

And you can find out more and more where these are going to be meeting by calling us at area code 208-523-0196. And I will get back to you, let you know the nearest home of one of our members at which you can rally. It'll be at 7 p.m. than the first Wednesday evening in October. And we'll be proceeding. We'll just take our time.

Wherever we are led, we are led in the text, okay? So please plan on joining us, visit us, cross our threshold, and you can find out the nearest place to meet at area code 208-523-0196. And that's in Idaho Falls, Idaho. And I'd love to speak with you and see if we can't indeed come to meet you and have you come and join us. Once again, that phone number is area code 208-523-0196.

This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Come and join us for our worship as well. That's 10 a.m. on Sunday morning, 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.