 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to BC 106, our course on interpreting scripture. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for all those who are in class today. Let's pray and let's get started. Father, we thank you for another day in our lives. Thank you, Father, for the opportunity to come together, spend some time learning, being equipped. We pray, Father, for the work of your Holy Spirit in our lives, for the work of your Spirit to teach us and train us and equip us, God, so that we can be effective and we can be fruitful ministers of your kingdom here on earth. We pray for an impartation of wisdom, revelation, anointing and grace on our lives as we look into your Word, as we study, as we learn that the Holy Spirit Himself be our teacher. Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So we're continuing our journey in interpreting scripture. I'll just quickly review something we touched on last week, and then we will go forward. Now, just for you, the first two students just to reiterate, no exams now. You'll have only one final exam. They'll cover everything, right? So there's no exam this week for this course, right? So you can get some rest. All right. So we were talking about biblical interpretation, types and shadows. And we looked at three different ways in which we see scripture working together. We talked about types, illustrations and allegorizing. So types are given to us in the scriptures. There's something in the New Testament that looks back at the Old Testament and says like that, you know, it's pointing back to the Old Testament. And so the Old Testament, God gave it at that time to point to what was going to come, right? So it's like you see the shadow first, then you actually see the tree, right? So the shadow was in the Old Testament. We call it a type, but it was pointing to the reality. It was in the New Testament. So that is perfectly fine. We can use that, we can study scripture and use that to preach and teach. Then there are illustrations, which are something that is used like an example, you know, to teach us something. So the Bible says, you know, in 1 Corinthians 10, also in Romans 15, the Bible says, things that happened to the people in the Old Testament happened as examples to us. So we can look at the stories, we can look at what is recorded in the Old Testament and look at them as illustrations or examples and learn from them, right? So example, like we've said this many times, when David went to fight Goliath, we can look at his life, we can look at his courage, we can look at his bonus. We can look at that as an illustration, as an example for us and we can be inspired. But we must not allegorize. Allegorize means we are putting into the text something that God never intended. So like we said last time, suppose we say David is like Jesus, Goliath is like Satan, and five stones represent five pieces of armor, helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, sword of spirit and shield of faith, five matching. Oh, we forgot the shoes, but anyway. So five stones he took, five pieces of armor. And then we, you know, we make that, we make it up like that. Now, it sounds okay. And we're not doing or we're not saying anything sinful, but that's an example of allegorizing. That means we are assigning a meaning to some scripture text that God never intended. We're not using it. It's not a type and a shadow. It's not, it's not an illustration, but we are allegorizing. We're giving it meaning that was not there originally. That is allegorizing. That we must not do. So we'll talk more about that later. But types and illustrations are good things. We must learn, must identify them in scripture and use them. So we spent quite a bit of time on that last week. And today we're going to go to the next lesson, which is on biblical interpretation or on parables, interpreting parables. Now, before we go forward, any questions on types, illustrations, allegories, any questions on that? Let me just check on online class. If there are any, I'll just stop sharing. Any questions on the previous lesson, which is types, shadows, types, illustrations, allegories? Any questions on that before we get into talking about parables? Okay. Fine. So let's move on to our next lesson today. We'll try to cover maybe at least two more lessons. We will talk about parables. Let me share that. So parables, we are all aware that the Lord Jesus, He used parables a lot in His preaching and teaching. Now we do find some in the Old Testament. One notable example in the Old Testament is when the prophet Nathan, he went to rebuke King David. Second Samuel, I think chapter 11, I think. He went to rebuke King David because David had committed grievous crime. He had committed murder, committed adultery, all that. So God had sent the prophet Nathan to rebuke him. Now how will he go rebuke? So he used a parable. He said, King David, and he gave a story. There was one man, he had sheep and all of that, but somebody came, he went and there was another poor man who had just one sheep. And he went and he took that person's one sheep and he did all that. So he gave the story to David. David was king. He got very angry. So who is that man? Come on, I'll punish him. And then he said, you are that man. So he used a parable. David understood the parable. He understood the meaning of it. He was ready to act on it. And then the prophet Nathan said, hey, that's what you've done. And it opened David's eyes to his own wrongdoing. So that's an example in the Old Testament. But definitely now we come back to the New Testament and we see the Lord Jesus using a lot of parables. So what are parables? They are simply stories or you can say they're simply illustrations taken from everyday life. Stories taken from everyday life, which help us understand spiritual truth. So these are stories from everyday life. But in those stories or through those stories, we can learn some spiritual truth. So of course the parables of Jesus had to do with stories from their time. So a lot of it would be a farming, fishing, those kinds of stories, things that were relevant in those days. So if you think about it, and I think this question came up in the class last week, is it okay for us to use stories from our life, our day-to-day life? Is it okay to use stories from our day-to-day life to help people understand spiritual truth? And the answer is yes, because that's what Jesus did. He used stories from their time, which the common man would easily understand. Oh, he's talking about farming, he's talking about various things that they related to. A shepherd taking care of sheep, a woman searching for a lost coin in the house, those kind of things. They all understand that, they relate to it. So if we look at it from our day and time, yes, it's good to use stories or illustrations from our everyday life in order to help people understand spiritual truth. But the important thing is the spiritual truth, right? They need to come to understand that spiritual truth. If they just listen to the story and they say, what did pastor teach them? They'll tell you the story. Oh, we enjoyed some nice three stories he said, we enjoyed the stories. But if they didn't get the spiritual truth, then their stories have become a distraction, right? Because they only paid attention to the story, they didn't pay attention to the truth. So there is a balance to this, but understand the main purpose of the story. It is in that story hidden, there is hidden truth. So what are parables? Parables, you know, it means, I mean, the literal word, para is beside or alongside. So you're throwing, like we said, English, you know, let me put it like this. You're throwing two stones, right? So along with the story, you're also passing on truth. You're throwing it together. So you're communicating a story, but in the story, there's also truth. So you're para, you're throwing it alongside. You're putting it together. You're communicating it together. The story plus truth. So it's not just the story you want people to hear. You want people to understand the truth that's actually, the story is actually pointing to. Right? So Jesus spoke in parables and, you know, in Matthew 13, also in Mark 4. Very interesting question. The disciples of Jesus come and ask him, why are you speaking in parables? Why are you telling these stories? Right? So, you know, you can imagine they all sit there and let's say, oh, one more story. He's already told us 10 stories, one more story. Then next day, again, three stories. What is the, what is going on here? Jesus is saying stories, so many stories. So they come and ask him, why are you speaking like this? Why are you speaking in these stories? Then Jesus explains, right? In Matthew 13, Mark 4, he says, for you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom. That means for you disciples, God has, you know, blessed you that you're able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom. When I say it directly, you can understand it. But for the others, I have to do it like this. Right? So that means there are some people who will understand plainly. Like, you just tell them straight, you know, this is what the Bible, you know, the word of God says this is, this is the truth of the kingdom. They'll understand it directly. But for some people, you need to quote unquote, you need to package it in a story because he said there's a reason why. Because the eyes of these people, they have eyes but they cannot see. They have ears but they cannot hear their hearts. They cannot understand. So that is why I am putting it in a story so that at least they can get the truth. So for the disciples, he said, look, you're able to understand easily the mysteries of the kingdom because the father has given it to you. He's brought you into a place where you know you can understand. But for these people, it's not like that. They have eyes, they can't see, they have ears, they can't hear their hearts, they can't understand. So I have to put it like this. So the parable is an attempt to help people understand the mysteries of the kingdom. For those who cannot understand. It's like, I'm doing, taking one more step. Other people, if I speak directly to the disciples, if I speak directly, they will understand. But these people, they cannot. So I have to take one more step. I have to put it in a story and then hopefully they will understand through the story. You know, they'll go and think, ah, he said like this. He said like that. Maybe they're thinking about the story. What is so great in that story? Yeah, we are doing this every day. Every day we're going to the farm. Every day we're going to the field and putting seed and what is so great? Oh, oh, maybe the seed means something. Oh, maybe it means it is God's word. You know, so as they think about the story, they will stumble upon the truth. Maybe it's an attempt to help people understand the truth. So that's why Jesus spoke in parables. And it's perfectly fine if we do something similar. So parables were an effective form of communication. They got the attention of the hearers. They encouraged people to think about it. You think about the story. Yeah. And it then would lead them to the truth. So if you look at the parables, the stories Jesus used, there's so many. So we just listed some of them here in about the two houses. One house built on the rock, one house built on the sand. So very, very simple. They can all understand it. Yeah. If you build a house on the rock, it will be safe when the storm comes. If you build a house on the sand, it's going to collapse. No foundation. But then Jesus said, whoever hears my words and does these things, does my whoever hears and hears and does my word. He is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. So the story was very simple, very easy to understand. But the main meaning is you must listen to my word and you must live by my word. Then you will be like this, strong, stable. Storms will come, rains will come, floods will come, but you will be standing. So it put it in a very simple way, but a very powerful truth was communicated. So like that, there are many stories. We are familiar as you read through the Gospels. You would have gone through these parables. So I'm not going through all of them, but the question is, or the main thing we want to learn is how do we interpret the parables? Interpreting parables, we must interpret them correctly to get the correct meaning out of the parables. Because sometimes we can take a parable and preach something totally different from what Jesus never meant and just be looking down from heaven. Hey, that's not what I meant. I can imagine Jesus like, oh no, what does this guy say? And Jesus must be like, Gabriel, you need to go do something. Go tell this guy not to interpret my parable like that. I can just imagine. Because we read the parable and we say something else that Jesus did not even mean. So we need to interpret these parables correctly. How do we do it? Well, here are just some guidelines. Number one, understand the story's natural meaning. This is the actual story that he was saying. So understand what he was saying. This is literal, take it literal. This is what he's saying. A shepherd at 100 sheep, one sheep got lost. Or a woman, she lost a coin. Okay, understand. Very simple. Don't make it complicated. Understand the story. Simple stories. Then see in what context did Jesus use that parable or that story or that illustration? In what context was he doing it? Sometimes he's responding to a question. Sometimes there's a request from people to explain something. Sometimes somebody's made a complaint. So how many times must I forgive my brother? He's very irritated. How many times? He's waiting for a number. And then Jesus talks about the story about how the king forgave the man who owed a huge debt. But that man didn't go and forgive his servant who owed him a small amount. He didn't do that. So he's teaching about forgiveness through that story. See basically God has forgiven us so much that we need to turn around and forgive people. Who may have offended us. But what they've done to us is nothing in comparison to what we've done against God himself. And then he says, okay, seven times seventy. So it doesn't mean you count. Four hundred and ninety times. Well, you've reached it. Coming close, four eighty seven. Three more times finished. I can take revenge. That's not the point. He's not talking about little numbers. Seven times seventy. He's basically saying it's just as how much, you know, how immeasurably without measure. God has forgiven us. Right. That way we have to forgive others. Right. So that's the point of those stories. Right. So it's maybe, you know. So when you understand the context, it'll help us understand, interpret the story correctly. Parables sometimes were given with a stated purpose. Jesus, he says, okay, I want to, you know, this is how it is. And he gives a parable. There are parables of the kingdom, meaning he's specifically saying, this is how the kingdom of God operates. Right. So for example, he said, the kingdom of heaven is like this. There was a man or owner of a vineyard and he needed some laborers to work in his vineyard. So nine o'clock in the morning he goes to the city center. He sees some laborers there. He says, hey, you're looking for work. I'm just paraphrasing it. You're looking for work. Okay. Go work in my vineyard. I'll give you the days wages. Okay. So some people go nine o'clock in the morning. They start working. And he needs more laborers. So 12 o'clock in the afternoon, he goes to the city centers. He finds some people looking for work. Hey, go work in my vineyard. 12 o'clock. Three o'clock. He needs some workers. Hey, you find some people? Go work in my vineyard. So there are people. Some started working at nine o'clock in the morning. Some started working at 12. Some started working at three. Now at six o'clock in the evening, end of the day, they all line up. So the people who started working at nine, they are waiting. Oh, today I will get one thousand rupees. Just making up. That person, he started half a day. He should get 500. That person started three o'clock. He should get 250. But the master comes, gives everybody thousand. So these people are like, hey, how much you got? Thousand. You also got thousand. But you started only at 12 o'clock. Three o'clock. How much you got? Thousand. You got thousand. Hey, I started at nine o'clock. You started at three o'clock. This is not fair. So they start complaining. Then the master responds. He says, hey, two things. First, I gave you what I agreed. Nine o'clock you agreed for thousand rupees. I gave you thousand rupees. Why are you complaining? Second, master says, don't I have a right to do as I wish with what I have? Don't I have a right to do as I wish with what I have? It's his money, not their money. If he wants to give thousand to the person who started, I'm putting it in simple terms. If he wants to give thousand rupees to the person who started at three o'clock, that is his, his wish. Can I not do as I wish? And then Jesus says, so is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is like this. So what is he trying to get? What is the message he's trying to get to us? Through that story. He says many, the first shall be last. The last shall be first. So what is the message he's getting to us? There's several things we can take. First, that we must not judge other people. God will call people at different points in time into work in His vineyard. He calls them. And it's up to God whom He calls and whom He chooses and how He uses them and how He blesses them. It's entirely up to God. I cannot point a finger and say, hey, that man, that woman, they don't deserve this, no. It is entirely up to God whom He calls, whom He chooses, how He uses them, how He blesses them. I, as a person, as a part of the kingdom, I must just recognize that. I can't go and keep judging and saying, hey, that person should not have such a big church. That person should not have such a big ministry. What he's doing, that is not my business. This is God's kingdom. It's entirely up to God whom He calls, whom He chooses, how He uses them, how He blesses them. That's entirely up to God. And I must learn to rejoice in how ever God blesses them. Imagine the person who came at 9 o'clock, he got 1000 rupees. The person who came at 3 o'clock got 1000. You also got 1000. Wonderful, man. You're really blessed. That's a different attitude. You're like, hey, I'm happy you got that. I got what he told me I will get. I agreed for 1000, he gave me 1000. You came at 3 o'clock, you also got 1000. Wonderful. Wonderful. Let us rejoice, be happy. Why complain? Anyway, we got the same amount. So you're happy, you're celebrating how God blesses calls, anoints and uses people. That's fine. Now, how does this translate into everyday life? Example, suppose you've been working in a city. You've been working 40 years in that city, pastoring. After 40 years of working, you have a church, 500 people. Now, one fellow graduates from ABC Bible College. He comes to the same city. In two years, he's got 500 people. God, I work here, 40 years. After 40 years, I have church of 500. That bacha, just two years he graduated. Little boy, God, you're, how he must be doing something wrong. How he's got church of 40 people. See, that is how we tend to think. But that is not kingdom thinking. Because according to this parable, who am I to judge? God will call, God will choose, and God himself will use. God will anoint, God will bless as he pleases. I can't judge what God has called each one of us to do is to be faithful in what he's given you. You'll be faithful. You've got the message, right? But that parable, that simple parable that Jesus gave, if you think about it and we understand it and we try to draw the principle, what is the truth about the kingdom that he is saying? Then that will teach us a lot. But suppose we use this parable and say, oh, God is a partial God. The people he chose at nine o'clock were the Jews. The people he chose at 12 o'clock were the Baptists. And the people he chose at three o'clock are the Pentecostals. If I interpret like that, it is correct. It's not correct. That is not what Jesus meant. It's not what he meant, right? I am assigning some meaning to that parable and making God look like he has favorites. He treats though that group of people better than these. No, no, no. That is not what he meant, right? He has no favorites. God is not a partial God. God is fair and just to everybody. But he's helping us understand something about the kingdom, a principle, the kingdom that should operate in our lives. He's not trying to tell us that God is a partial God or he has some favorite groups of people. None of that. So if somebody interprets that parable and starts saying things like this, I'm just made up an example. But if they say, oh, this group, nine o'clock group is this and twelve o'clock group is this and three o'clock group is this and then that is the wrong interpretation of that parable. You understand, right? You're looking at me very strange. Okay. I hope you understood, right? Number three. So, which is what we did determine the main truth being illustrated by the parable. Do not turn parables into allegories by trying to read meaning into every detail, right? So don't allegorize it. Like example, I said, no, don't say nine o'clock group is this twelve o'clock group is this. Jesus never said that. He never meant it. And don't read meaning into every detail. No. You try to get the sense of it. But don't go and say, oh, every detail, this represents that and this represents that and this represents that. Because Jesus, if Jesus wanted us to do that, he would have explained that to us, right? But don't allegorize every detail. For example, I think we'll give some examples, right? We'll explain this. Use only those analogies that were explicitly pointed out. Use only that which Jesus pointed out in the story, in the illustration, in the parable. If he pointed out or whoever's giving that story, what was pointed out, use only that. Very important. Number five, validate the main truth of the parable with the teaching of the rest of scripture. That means whatever truth I draw out of the parable must be consistent with the teaching of the rest of scripture. I can't use one parable and come out with some meaning. There is not supported by the rest of scripture. For example, I heard one famous preacher. This is in Luke 15. I'll just point this out because I want to just give us a bad example, an example of how you must not interpret scripture. If you come to Luke 17, I'll just give an example. This was actually like a very famous person. I won't mention his name and all that. This was based on Luke 17. If you look from verse 5 to 10, Luke 17, 5 to 10. This is an example of how we shouldn't assign some meaning that was not intended in the parable. In Luke 17-5, the apostles come to the Lord Jesus and they say, Lord increase our faith. To that Jesus responded, if you have faith, like a mustard seed, you can say to the tree, mulberry tree, be pulled up by the root, be planted in the sea, and it will be you. Then right after that, the scripture is continuing. There's a text, the text of scripture continues. Which of you having a servant was ploughing or tending sheep? Will say to him when he has come from the field, come at once and sit down to eat. But will he not say to him, prepare something for my supper and guard yourself and serve me till I've eaten and drunk and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, you say we are unprofitable servants, we have done what was our duty to do. So we read Luke 17-5-10. Now, this was what that preacher said. He said, faith is like a servant. When you release your faith, faith goes out on your field. It does work for you. And then it comes back and then you don't have to thank your servant. The servant just did what he was supposed to do. That was the message he preached. Everybody shouted hallelujah, praise the Lord and all that. My question is, is that the correct interpretation of Luke 17-5-10? Is that what Jesus was saying? Was he saying faith is your servant that you send out into the field? What do you think? So there are two separate thoughts, right? See, remember the Bible was not written in chapter and verse. The writers wrote whatever the Holy Spirit brought to their remembrance at that time. So there are actually two separate thoughts. Here there is verses 5 and 6. So if you actually look at it, verses 1-5 is about forgiveness. Luke 17-1-5. Verses 5 and 6 is about faith. And verses 7-10 is about serving God. So you don't mix up the thoughts. The question in 5 and 6 was about faith. Increase our faith and then the Lord said, Okay, this is how you use your faith. You have to speak your faith. It'll happen. Then he continued to talk to them about serving God. Before verse 5, he was talking about forgiving people. Now two verses talking about faith. Then talking about our attitude in serving God. That even after we have gone out, we've done. When we come back, we say, Lord, I've only done what you've told me to do. It's not like I've done you a favor. I've only done what you have told me to do. And God knows how to reward us and honor us and so on. But that's just an example where there's an illustration there about telling the tree to move. And there's another illustration about a servant serving his master and how the master relates to the servants. There's illustration there. So don't mix that illustration with something else in front. You'll get some totally different meaning. Sean, your question. Yeah, if there is a common thread, then you recognize it and use it. But if there is not, then we shouldn't. We should treat them as separate. Because remember, Jesus could have actually said these stories on different occasions. But the writer, gospel writers were writing it one after the other. So Jesus could have on one day said one story. Maybe another day he would have said another story. But in the gospel, it may have been put in the same chapter. It doesn't mean he was saying it in all in the same sermon. Because they were writing what the Holy Spirit was bringing to their remembrance. They were not putting the date and time on July 4th, 9 o'clock service. He preached this July 10th, 9, 10 o'clock service. He preached that. No, they're just putting it as the Holy Spirit reminded them. So when we read, we get the impression as though it was all part of one sermon. It could have been, but it may not have been. So we have to treat them separately. If there is a common thread, in example Mark 4, or the sermon on the mount. Yeah, that was one sermon that goes across several chapters. Five, six, seven, one sermon. But it goes across three chapters. So then you treat them. But even in that three chapters, all different, different thoughts, various kinds of thoughts, he's talking about different things. So you treat them all in separation. If there's a common thread, okay, then you connect. So interpret carefully. So let me just finish this. We'll take up some questions from online students as well. So when you're studying a parable, you say, how was it introduced? Who are those hearers? What is the action commanded or the response expected from the parable from that story? Okay. So let me see if there are any questions from our online class. Any questions? Online students, have you been following this? Any questions? Okay. So some of the parables of Jesus, the stories that he used are so powerful. That of the prodigal son. Such a simple story, but a very, very powerful story. That is capturing to us how we have gone away from God. We've done all kinds of wrong things. And then how when we return to God, repent and return to God, he still receives us. Now recently I heard somebody interpret one part of the parable. They said it like this. They said, Hey, you see, you have to go and ask your father to give you your inheritance, your share of the inheritance. It's in the Bible. And they were actually referring to the story of the prodigal son. Now, is that a right application of that story? Is that what Jesus wants people to do? Just because the prodigal did that or the elder brother was there? No, that's not the purpose of the story. So there was some family matter, family issue, family matter issue. And that person is quoting this parable, this prodigal son story. See, the younger son went and asked the father for his inheritance. Father gave it to him. You go ask, but that is not what Jesus intended from the story. That's a misuse of the parable. The purpose of that parable was to talk to us about the love of God, of what sin has done for us and how we need to return to God and how God will welcome us. That's the purpose. And so we should not, you know, we should not allegorize that parable. We will come to allegorizing next thing. So sometimes people can say, well, the prodigal son represents this kind of people and the elder son represents these kind of people in the church and all of that. Well, we can say that we should not have the attitude of the elder son. That's the right application. But don't use that the elder son as a representation of this kind of group of people and the prodigal son like this kind of group of people, all the youth are represented by the prodigal. All the older people are represented by the elder son. Don't use those kinds of things. Right. Sometimes people do all that, you know, but that is not what Jesus intended. So don't, don't allegorize that parable. It can lead into, you know, all kinds of wrong misapplication, misunderstanding of that. Okay. Any questions? Yes, Sean. Yeah. So first, so Sean is talking about the Lord being anointed. So first, we would not call it a parable. Yeah, because it is an incident. It actually happened. Parable is a story that didn't have or, you know, it's an illustration from everyday life. But in this case, it was an actual incident. So what we find when we compare the Gospel narratives is Jesus was anointed on two different occasions. In one, it is clearly given who anointed him. One is, I think in John 12, where Mary, Mary and Martha, so Mary, she anoints Jesus. And you can see that the number of days before his, if you read the passages carefully, you'll find the number of days were different. So one, I think was six days before his crucifixion. One was three days before his crucifixion. So the day that you can see the difference in the timing, you'll also see the difference in who did it. One was done by Mary and the other was done by this unnamed woman who came. You'll also see the difference in the location. One was done in the house of Simon. And the other was done, I think in Mary's house or something like that. So you'll find. So basically you can, if you look at those passages very carefully, you'll conclude that it's easy to conclude actually that these are two separate occasions where two different women came. And they anointed. And one broke the alabaster box on his head. The other wiped his feet with his tears. So how they did it also is very different. So if you can conclude that these were two separate incidents, yeah. Cross-reference it. Oh, okay. So yeah, so some Bibles have these headings and cross-references. That is fine. The cross-reference doesn't necessarily mean it is the same thing. They're saying, okay, here's another incident that's similar to this, right? Or they may, if they cross-reference verses, it doesn't, it means that that verse has some relation to it, but it doesn't mean it's exactly the same. So when they cross-reference across the Gospels, they're just saying, okay, here's another incident that's like this where Jesus was anointed. You know, similar, similar incident. So the cross-reference helps in our study of the scriptures. Yeah. Okay, so let's take a break. When we come after the break, we're going to talk about avoiding allegorizing and then hopefully we'll also get into how to interpret prophetic scriptures, right? So the prophetic passages scripture, how do we go about interpreting them? Right, so we'll be back in 10 minutes. Thank you.