Lesson 3; The Lord Often Taught With Parables

This weeks lesson for my New Testament class, I chose to focus on the parables told by Christ. The main scriptures focused on were in Matthew 13.

My definition of a parable is a story taught to help us learn the ways of the Kingdom of Heaven. They can be interpreted differently according to who is listening and their proportion of faith and intelligence.

1. What describes the future growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? The parable of the mustard seed because it starts out small, but becomes the greatest church on the earth and a beacon to the world.

2. Why does the church send out so many missionaries? The church sends out lots of missionaries to find anyone and hopefully everyone who has 'ears to hear' the word of God, and bring them into His fold.

3. How do you explain the remarkable growth of the church, considering it is fairly new compared to most world religions and started small in the American frontier? The growth in the church can be explained by the teaching and truthfulness to our gospel and that Christ is the leader of the church. People find this out through the Holy Ghost. Moroni's promise at the end of the Book of Mormon puts the responsibility in them to act and pray in faith to know for themselves. Once they do this, of course the right answer will come, and they will know the truth, and will not be able to deny it.

4.Why are some members of the Church so willing to sacrifice so much worldy wealth and recognition in order to maintain membership in the church? Members sacrifice so much because they know this church is true and it id Christ's church. If they are endowed, they will know the level of commitment they have covenanted with the Lord about the Law of Sacrifice.

5. Why do some Church members choose to leave the church? Some members choose to leave the church because the faith has been shaken, or possibly was never deeply established.

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Considering the parable of the treasure and the pearl of great price, what sacrifices would you be willing to make to obtain the treasure of the gospel? What sacrifices have you or those you know already made for the gospel? I would hopefully be willing to sacrifice everything I have for the Church and for the gospel. I am responsible to stand up for it. I believe it and have a strong testimony of it. Sacrifices made by a family friend are amazing. She and her sister left Jamaica after being baptized, served missions, and now have little to no contact with their family because of their religious beliefs. I can't imagine how hard that must be to be rejected by those who raised you.

What does the net represent in the parable of the net cast into the sea? What does it mean to be gathered into the net? What is represented by the action of gathering the good into vessels and casting the bad away?  The net represents missionaries. To be gathered into the net means to be taught the gospel and grow a testimony. Judgement day is represented when the scripture says, "gathering the good into vessels and casting the bad away". The good will be saved, and the evil will be 'cast into the furnace of fire' (Matthew 13:50).