Kingdom Parables Series

One of the primary themes of Jesus’ teaching is the kingdom of heaven. After his baptism and subsequent temptation, Jesus began to teach and preach in towns and villages everywhere, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Jewish believers at the time (those whose faith was in God’s promise to send a deliverer some day) heard the word “kingdom”, and many began to assume this kingdom would be a political overthrow of Israel’s enemies. They were ready for some Roman heads to start rolling on the ground, but instead, Jesus started telling stories, extended analogies really, called parables, to explain to them what the kingdom was actually like. It wasn’t quite what they imagined, and it wasn’t until after his death and resurrection that most of the stories began to make sense. We’re going to take the summer to examine the Kingdom Parables in the book of Matthew (and some from Luke), to help us understand what kind of kingdom Jesus is saying is already here, but not yet here, and more importantly, what is the King setting out to accomplish. Hope you can join us!