First Christian Union - Sermons First Christian

Our message today comes from the Parable of the Net found in Matthew 13:47-50 where Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven like a dragnet which gathers in all variety of fish which will be sorted out once pulled ashore. At that moment there will be a separation of the good from the bad fish in which the bad will be thrown away and destroyed. Similarly, at the end of Age when the Day of Judgment arrives, there will be a separation of those who are with Christ and those who are His enemy.

Our message today comes from Jesse Frame as he speaks to us about the Parable of the Weeds found in Matthew 13:24-30. We discover in this parable that good and bad will have to live together until the harvest season when Christ will have his angels separate those that are evil from those that are His.

Our messages focuses on Jesus' Parable in Matthew 24:32-35 concerning the budding fig tree in explanation of the rest of Jesus' discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. In it we find that we need to be prepared for the return of Christ which can come at any moment.

As Jesus is coming to His final week before the cross, He has a lot yet to say and in the Parable of the Tenants in Mark 12:1-12, He speaks to the moment at hand where the Jews have rejected the prophets before Him and are now preparing to kill Him as the Son of the owner of the vineyard. But there's still something that they are prepared for, the retribution of the owner through bringing the Son back to live.

Our parable today comes from Luke 10:25-37 where Jesus is once again confronted with a question by an expert in the Law as a test. In His response the parable of the Good Samaritan is presented. In answering the question, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus turns the conversation around and makes us wonder, "What kind of a neighbor am I?"

While our parable in today's message is one of the briefest that Jesus ever spoke, the reason behind it packs a powerful lesson on who Christ is and how we respond to Him.