Summary of Our Lord's Preaching in Parables

The point: The church's task is to reach the masses with the Word of the living God, not with religious circuses or by titillating idle curiosity.

Martin contrasts Jesus' preaching of the Word to the multitudes with the idea of a 'religious circus' or 'sensational juggling of the stars,' emphasizing that Jesus offered nothing but the Word, not entertainment.

It was a word which announced that in His person the great emancipator, the great burden-bearer had come. To this vast multitude, with all of its diversity of spiritual perspective, with all of its diversity of spiritual appetite, even with the perversity of Pharisees who are undergoing judicial blindness, Jesus had one message. He preached the word unto them. Though many in the masses would love to have seen something that was unusual and to see the Lord Jesus as later on, they requested of Him, snap His fingers and make the planets play leapfrog with one another. They wanted a sign from heav...

12:12 - 13:28 Read in full sermon

The point: The church's task is to reach the masses with the Word of the living God, not with religious circuses or by titillating idle curiosity.

He applies the 'no religious circus' analogy to the church, stating that its task is to reach the masses with the Word of God, not by titillating idle curiosity.

Let me say by way of application, His task is the task He has committed to His church. And in the church's efforts to reach the masses, the church is to be like her Lord with a religious circus. She is not to come to the masses titillating idle curiosity. She is to come to the masses with the word of the living God.

13:28 - 13:57 Read in full sermon

The point: Parents should use varied and ingenious forms, like dialogue or assigning characters, to convey the Word to their children, rather than just lecturing.

Martin suggests that parents, when teaching children, might use an 'interlocutory method' (question and answer, assigning parts in a narrative) rather than just lecturing, as an example of varied forms of conveying the Word.

but that Word can have an infinite variety even as in this instance He preached the Word but He did so in parables and here we must take to heart our Lord's injunction be wise as serpents harmless as doves we must follow Paul who said being clean I caught you with guile there is a doctrine of holy guile a way in which we can present the Word and catch men off their guard and before they know it they've opened their minds and spirits to the truth and we sneak in as it were through the back door and seek to seize upon the conscience with the Word of God there is a wonderful richness of variety a...

21:21 - 22:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Preachers and parents must be sensitive and considerate to the ability of their hearers/children to receive the Word, taking into account previous knowledge, present receptivity, and physical factors.

Martin shares his personal experience of seeing people fighting sleep during his sermons, using it to illustrate the challenge of maintaining attention and the need for sensitivity, while also clarifying that occasional distraction doesn't mean he should quit.

of those to whom He preached remember in another context He said they have been following and listening to My words they are hungry let's care for their physical needs and so our Lord's teaching according to Mark teaching to the multitudes was characterized by this measure of His teaching He was sensitive to that which they were able to hear now once again by way of application let me underscore that here our Lord is the model of grace of sensitivity and consideration as He took into account their previous knowledge their present receptivity physical factors of heat and food and all of these o...

25:36 - 27:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: the common denominator of this group his very own disciples is that they saw in Jesus of Nazareth one who was worthy of unreserved allegiance and of the abandonment of faith

He uses the analogy of cracking a nut to get to the meat, explaining that Jesus 'expounded' the parables by releasing the inner essence (the 'meat') from the external form (the 'shell') for His disciples.

verbal form is found only here in the New Testament no other place in the New Testament in the noun form it's found in second Peter one twenty no scripture is a private interpretation and the etymology of the word or the word in terms of its etymology if it were to be translated literally expounded to release or to set free came to be used for expounding what had he been doing he had been setting forth the kingdom of God in parables my fist is the substance and the reality of the kingdom it is now wrapped in my handkerchief I'm using a mode of teaching that's legitimate an object lesson you se...

35:53 - 37:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin concludes by demonstrating how this passage provides a pattern for the church's ministry: confronting the multitudes with 'the Word' (not religious circuses) and then…

Martin recounts his practice of reading Spurgeon after his own preparation, but in this instance, he read Spurgeon's sermon 'Teaching for the Outer and Inner Circles' early due to a busy week, finding it beautifully aligned with his own thesis.

And I said, well, usually I don't turn to Spurgeon until after I've prepared because his mind is so fertile and his ideas so captivating that I'm afraid I'd find it hard to think my own thoughts after I read Spurgeon on a passage. So I normally will turn to him after I've done my basic preparation. But knowing that this passage is a pattern for the church, knowing that this week was going to be unusually hectic, I said I'd better get the seeds sown and planted and germinating early in the week because things are going to be pressed on Saturday having the kind of schedule I had this past week. ...

51:51 - 52:25 Read in full sermon