Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables?

This message will definitely challenge a lot of the thinking we get from some contemporary "missonal" or "seeker-friendly" churches. Even if you already feel uncomfortable with some of those ideas, listen to this, you probably have bought into more falsehoods than you thought.

Why Did Jesus Speak in Parables?
D.A. Carson

About 2/3 of the way through listening to this, I realized something great: Carson was able to take a seemingly "side note" kind of question, one like many that we are counseled to avoid when trying to present the gospel to someone, and shows how it can only be answered by the good news, and uses it to help us understand the gospel even more. This skill--being able to turn every question to Christ--is, I think, at the heart of true evangelism. And not just to turn the question to Christ, but to show how the purpose of the question was to turn the asker to Christ.

Have you ever read a really good book meant to teach something? I saw this first in reading C.S. Lewis' books on theology: he not only explains the subject well, but anticipates questions and responses that the reader will have, and answers them also. You can see it too in Romans. The mark of a good book is the author's ability to guide you to the questions whose answers will teach you what they want you to know. As you read, you think "well does that mean that ..." only to read next, "now don't get this confused with ..., the answer is actually quite different."

After listening to this message about parables, you see that not only does thinking about parables lead you to thinking about Christ, but God specifically designed the Bible in a way that would lead you to ask, "Why did Jesus speak in parables?" And then He tells you the answer, and it is much more glorious than you imagined.

I think there are more questions like this being inserted into us by God's word. Questions He gives us to guide us to marvelous answers. I'm excited to find them.