Review: Parables: The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told By John F. MacArthur

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (Oct. 27 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400203481
• ISBN-13: 978-1400203482

Book Description


Pastor-teacher John MacArthur helps readers understand Jesus’ parables and how they relate to the whole of His message.

Jesus was a master storyteller, and the parables He told were ingeniously simple word pictures with profound spiritual lessons. Understanding the parables is a crucial matter for followers of Jesus. Jesus told parables so His people might comprehend His message about the kingdom of God clearly.

Master expositor and Bible commentator John MacArthur has spent a lifetime explaining the Word of God in clear and comprehensible terms. In Parables he helps Christians understand the essential lessons contained in the most famous and influential short stories the world has ever known.


About the Author

 John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, president of the Master's College and Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. In more than four decades of ministry, John has written dozens of bestselling books, including The MacArthur Study Bible, The Gospel According to Jesus, and Slave. He lives in Los Angeles.


My Review

Parables: The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told is written by John F. MacArthur. John MacArthur has written dozens of books and I knew Parables would be an amazing book!

John MacArthur is an incredibly smart and insightful author. In the Introduction of Parables, MacArthur explains: "Jesus’ parables were ingeniously simple word pictures with profound spiritual lessons." He goes on to explain: "Many assume, for example, that Jesus told parables for one reason only: to make His teaching as easy, accessible, and comfortable as possible. After all, the parables were full of familiar features—easily recognizable scenes, agricultural and pastoral metaphors, household items, and common people." MacArthur finds that it is very common today for churches to have a stage and to tell a story. The pulpit is almost non-existent. This is particularly true of mega-churches. MacArthur explains that:  "The parable helps explain a truth; history gives a factual account of what happened. Although history is told in story form, it is not illustrative fiction but reality." Once the reader accepts that the parables are not stories but in fact truth they can view the parables with new insight.

The book is divided into the following chapters:

1. One Ominous Day in Galilee
2. A Lesson About Receiving the Word
3. A lesson About the Cost of Discipleship
4. A Lesson About Justice and Grace
5. A Lesson About Neighborly Love
6. A Lesson About Justification By Faith
7. A Lesson About Faithfulness
8. A Lesson About Serpentine Wisdom
9. A Lesson About Heaven and Hell
10. A Lesson in Persistence In Prayer

There is also an Introduction, Appendix, Notes, Index and Spiritual Index.

Each chapter begins with a scripture verse regarding a parable in the Bible then there is an in depth examination of the parable. Quite honestly this book is going to help me immensely when working on a bible study involving a parable. Parables: The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told is a book that has helped me to understand the parables of Jesus with a much more mature heart. This is a book that will be read over and over.

Highly recommend The Mysteries of God's Kingdom Revealed Through the Stories Jesus Told by author John MacArthur.