I’ve always enjoyed a good story.  Stories connect with people.  Especially stories that are about things that we can relate to.

Jesus was a teller of stories.  He told stories to teach and explain spiritual truths.  Truths that are timeless.  Truths that have application for you and I.

They were called parables;  and they help you and I get a clue about the Living God and His Kingdom.  They were sometimes simplistic, and at other times obscure.  At the same time, those parables always convey a truth.

And that truth was either revealed or concealed.  The truth was revealed (obvious) to those who were truly desiring to be a Christ-follower.  The truth was concealed (hidden) from those who rejected Jesus.

You see, there is an interesting outcome of Jesus’ method of teaching through story telling.

People can still miss the point.  They remember the story, but walk away with a different understanding of the intent of the story.  Or they walk away with no understanding at all; completely perplexed and confused.  Consider this conversation Jesus had with His followers.

The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"  He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:"

'You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.  Matthew 13:10-17 (NIV).

For you and I to truly understand Jesus and all that He would have us learn, we have to be intentional about following Him, listening to Him and becoming like Him.

God reveals to Christ-followers truths that are concealed from those who do not follow Christ.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”  I Cor. 2:13-14

Indeed, these stories and illustrations that Jesus told require us to be His followers for us to understand and discern what He was talking about.

Jesus has a great story to tell.  The story of His Kingdom.

And we have the privilege to understand the entire picture of God's plan to reconcile you to Him through Jesus.

Will you choose to learn from Him?