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Teaching by Parables
Mark 4:2
"And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,"
When you think of the greatest teacher you ever had, you will probably come up with someone who kept their teaching practical. One of the greatest teachers I ever heard was Dr. Jack Hyles. Bro. Hyles was my pastor for many years. He had a way of making difficult truths sound so simple. When you walked away from his teaching, you knew exactly what he was trying to get across. You never walked away from his teaching and asked yourself, "What was the point of his sermon?" Though he was criticized for not being very deep, he never let the criticism of others stop him from being simple. This practical teaching style caused him to be in great demand with pastors who would request him to preach in their church.
The greatest teacher of all time is Jesus. If you were going to pattern your teaching after someone, I would highly advise you to copy Jesus' pattern of teaching. The verse above tells us that Jesus always taught in parables. A parable is an earthly story filled with godly truth. Jesus knew that the best way to get people to understand godly truths was to wrap those truths in everyday illustrations. That is one of the reasons why people would flock after Him, because they understood what He was teaching. The Pharisees would try to impress the people with their education, thus the people could not understand their teachings. However, Jesus took truths and brought them down to the bottom shelf where everyone lived. This type of teaching resulted in changed lives and crowds wanting to hear Jesus teach another truth.
Everybody is a teacher of some sort. Because you are a teacher, you would be wise to follow Jesus' example of teaching by parables. Your purpose of teaching is to help those whom you teach to understand the truth that will change their lives and cause them to do right. The best way to do this is to teach by parables. Let me give you three thoughts about teaching by parables.
First, be simple in your teaching. Don't try to impress people with how much you know. When you try to show people how "educated" you are, you will end up not giving people the truth that will help them. Stop worrying about how people view your intelligence. The most educated person is not one who can spew out a ton of big words. Anybody can go to a dictionary and memorize big words. An intellectual person is one who can take profound and deep truths and make them simple so everyone can understand. I like to put it this way; take the peanut butter and put it down on the bottom shelf so everyone can taste it. The purpose of you teaching is to convey the truth to those whom you teach, and the best way to accomplish this is through simplicity.
Second, use life to teach truths. People understand life, and when you take situations of life, they will understand your truth much better. Jesus constantly used the daily tasks of people to teach a truth. For instance, I love to use sports to teach because sports resemble life. People can understand sports, so if I can apply a truth using sports, then I will use it. Always find a way to use life to apply a truth.
Last, use object lessons as illustrations to present a truth. When people can see a truth, then the truth will always be remembered. Most people see in pictures, therefore visible illustrations are the best way to teach. You may have to think a little more to come up with an illustration, but it is worth it if you can help people to understand a truth.
Teaching people is a great responsibility. Don't waste this responsibility by trying to show people your intelligence, but rather use this responsibility wisely by teaching through parables.