Welcome everyone to what I basically call my interpretation of today’s message from Bear Creek Bible Church.

Today, if you don’t mind, I’d like to share a bonus message I listened to from the student’s class on Explaining the Parables.

In addition, if you want to hear these messages for yourself by the actual ministers, I’ll provide the link to the live stream.

Today’s message comes from Zephaniah 1:4-18

Legit Judge

Explaining why God is a jealous God.

He does not want us to worship false gods.

He does not want us to worship celestial bodies (the moon, stars, planets, etc.

He does not want us to worship those indifferent to the spiritual world.

Therefore:

1). The reason for God’s judgement is often idolatry. (1:4-7)

2). The prime people of judgement will be the leaders. (1:8-13)

3). The extent of judgement will be widespread. (1:14-18)

The question is what do we DO with this?

The answer is that if we are true believers, we will be lucky enough to be the first ones judged. In other words-The Raptured.

How do we get into the Kingdom of Heaven?

We Believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and we spread that news.

We serve mankind, the needy, our neighbors.

We reduce our sins- no one is without sins, but they can try harder to reduce them.

We sacrifice our needs for God’s.

Thats it! Not that it’s easy, but this is the gist of the message. You don’t want to be here for the Final Judgement…the one that comes years and years after the Rapture. You WANT to be in the first group of those judged.

Theres a lot to unpack in this message, and John does a much better job of explaining it in his words. So here is the link to today’s sermon which can be found on You Tube and if you subscribe, you can see every week’s message, and the music too.

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The second part of today’s message was one I chose to listen to after the service because my brother shared it with me.

He said if I wanted to see the Parables explained, that one of the youth ministers-Dennis- had done a great job.

He goes through by explaining all the story types -Allegories.

Myths-the Greek Gods for example

Fables- stories with a moral

Legends- Robinhood and King Arthur good examples.

Parables- real life with prophetic messages

He explains the Parable of the Sower

You basically identify all the nouns of the story and replace them with symbolic meaning. For example, the seed represents the Word of God.

Then you think of the context of the story. Who was Jesus audience? The Israelites.

Jesus’s desire is that His people accept him as their Savior. To them He offers eternal life.

Who are the antagonists (bad guys) in the story?

The Scribes and the Pharisees.

Who are the protagonists of the story?

The Disciples and the Apostles.

The Sower is Jesus. The Seed us His Word. The bird is Satan. The Ground is Israel. The Fruit is the confession that Jesus is the Messiah.

Doesn’t that explain the true message of that parable?

Let’s move on to a different one.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

What is the basic lesson in this story? Help people in need. But that is not all of the message that Jesus wants us to hear.

The man who was robbed represents the Israelites.

The robbers were the Scribes and the Pharisees.

The payment is the price the good Samaritan pays for the man’s healing.

Who does that make as the Samaritan? Jesus

Jesus is the one who showed mercy.

Again, that explains the parable so much better, but to get all the little details from the student’s service, go to bearcreekbiblechurchstudentlivestream on YouTube if you want to hear how Dennis really digs into it.

I like how the messages tie into each other and I hope you enjoyed my brief interpretation of each! I’m enjoying bringing you the message each Sunday and if you are, let me know! Did you learn the same thing or did you hear something different or something more? Let me know in the comments.

Have a Blessed Sunday!