Kingdom Concepts

Description

DURING HIS EARTHLY ministry, Jesus told fifty or more parables, depending how you categorize the Lord’s teaching. Of these at least eighteen are kingdom-related. When I use the term “kingdom-related,” I am saying that Christ directly tied the teaching of the parable to the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. I will make no attempt in this work to distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. If you see a distinction, I will take no issue with you on this point. But either way, any parable that is kingdom-related teaches us an important concept that we must grasp and or act upon.

This book is not intended to be an exhaustive work that details all the Lord’s parables. I will treat only those that are related directly to the kingdom. What distinguishes the kingdom parables from the other teachings of our Lord is the words of our Lord Himself. Jesus always announced that a kingdom concept was being communicated when this was the case. Apparently, Jesus felt that the message being conveyed was important enough to delineate the kingdom parables from all others. We should take note of this distinction and treat the message of the parable with careful consideration.