Parables of Jesus Part 3: The Absent Owner

This free Bible lesson, The Parable of The Absent Owner, will teach preschool and elementary students about the lesson Jesus taught when He was living on Earth as a human and the greatest teacher of all time.

This lesson is part of a summer series titled "Jesus Makes a Splash: Lessons from the Parables of Jesus".

This lesson comes from the Seeds of Truth Elementary Bible Curriculum that is free to anyone looking for ideas to "plant seeds" into the hearts of children as they are learning about Jesus. Find more details HERE.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Seeds of Truth podcast, where seeds of biblical truth are planted into the hearts and minds of listeners so they can grow into a relationship with Jesus. I'm your host, Miss Dana. Thank you for joining me today. Let's get started. Hello, friends, and welcome back. This is part three of our lesson about parables that Jesus told. Remember, a parable is a short and simple story that uses everyday situations or ideas to teach a big lesson. Jesus used parables a lot whenever he was here on earth teaching and serving the people. The parable that we're going to learn about today is in one of the four gospel books, and that is Mark. It is called the Parable of the Absent Owner. And it's also sometimes known as the parable of the absent householder. So absent means that someone is not there, not present, or they have left. Okay, so before Jesus told this parable, he said, but no one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know. Only the Father knows. Keep watch. Stay awake. You do not know when that time will come. What do you think Jesus is talking about in this passage? What is it that no one knows? What time is he talking about? So this is part of the response that Jesus gave when his disciples asked him about what to expect about the end times and when Jesus will introduce his kingdom. The disciples and all of the people who listened to Jesus when he was teaching were expecting him to set up a new kingdom here on earth. They were expecting Jesus to fix the world that had been broken by sin. But that was not the plan that Jesus had at that time. Do you know why the people were expecting Jesus to set up a kingdom on earth? God made a promise of a coming kingdom throughout the Old Testament of the Bible. God made a promise of the coming kingdom to Abraham. God promised Abraham a land, a big family, and a great blessing. God told Abraham that the whole world would be blessed through him. In Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Many years after Abraham died, Jesus was born into Abraham's family. And Jesus is one of Abraham's many family members that were told and promised would be a blessing to the whole world. God also made a promise of the coming kingdom to David. God promised David that the king who rules forever would come from David's family. He said this in 2 Samuel chapter 7, verses 12 through 16. Jesus was born into the family of David. Jesus is part of the royal family chosen by God to rule as king. God also made a promise of the coming kingdom through the prophet Jeremiah. It was not to Jeremiah, but through Jeremiah. Remember, a prophet is someone who received messages from God. So God gave a message to Jeremiah that someday God would make a new covenant with his people of Israel to forgive sins. And Jeremiah wrote this in his book of Jeremiah, chapter 31, verses 31 through 34. We know that is what Jesus came to do. Jesus came to die on the cross to take away our sins. So the people were expecting someone to come and offer them a way to have a relationship with God and rule over them as king. Even before God made these promises of a coming kingdom, he promised to send a savior to crush Satan's head and defeat evil after sin entered the world. So all the way back in the book of Genesis, in chapter 3, verse 15, God said to Satan, I will make you and the woman hate each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. Her son will crush your head and you will bite his heel. This is talking about Jesus. Jesus was promised to come and defeat Satan and sin. So all of these promises that God made point to Jesus and the kingdom that would come through Jesus. Jesus is fully human and fully God. Jesus came from heaven to earth as a human, but also still fully God to live a sinless life, die on the cross for the sins of the world, and raise back to life. He is the king who was foretold in the Old Testament. So this is why the disciples and the people who heard Jesus teach were expecting him to set up a kingdom on the earth right then. But remember, that's not the plan that Jesus had at that time. So when the disciples asked Jesus about the end times and about when he will introduce his kingdom, that is when he said this about how no one will know the day or the hour. So this is in Mark chapter 13, verses 32 and 33. And he he said, But no one knows about that day or hour. Not even the angels in heaven know. The Son does not know, only the Father knows. Keep watch, stay awake. You do not know when that time will come. So what do you think Jesus meant when he said, No one knows the day or the hour? Someday Jesus will come back to get the people who love him and take us to heaven to be with him forever. He will set up his kingdom after all of his people are with him. Jesus tells us that only God the Father knows when he will send Jesus back to get the people that love him. That means we can't guess when Jesus will come back. That means we can't listen to someone else who says they know when Jesus will come back. We don't know when Jesus will come back. We do know that he will come back. The disciples didn't know it at the time, but there would be a big gap of time between when they thought Jesus was going to set up his kingdom and the actual time that he plans to set up his kingdom. And that gap of time is known as the church age, and it's the period of time that we are living in right now. So the church age began right after Jesus went back to heaven, after he died on the cross and rose back to life. And then it will continue until Jesus comes to take the people who have believed in him to heaven to live with him forever. So that is all the church age. And it's a big gap of time that has lasted for over 2,000 years. Jesus promised that he will come and get the people who love him and take all of those people back to heaven to live with him. Now, some people who love Jesus are already in heaven, aren't they? If we love Jesus and have asked Jesus to save us and we die on this earth, then we go to heaven. But this promise that Jesus made is about when he is coming back at the very end of days. This is the time when the earth will end as we know it, and everyone who loves Jesus will get to go to heaven, even if their body hasn't died yet. Jesus also told the disciples to keep watch and stay awake. He said, Keep watch, stay awake. You do not know when that time will come. This message is for any follower of Jesus who is alive at the time that he comes to get his followers and take us to heaven to live with him. He wants his followers to be ready for when he returns to get us and take us back to heaven to live with him. Right after Jesus told the disciples all of these things, he told the parable of the absent owner that we're going to look at. So just like earlier in our other episodes about parables, I'm going to read the parable to you and I'm going to ask for you to think about what you think each part of the parable is a symbol for. What do you think that each part of the parable represents? Because remember, a parable is a story that is told that uses familiar experiences to teach a deeper meaning. Okay, so this parable is found in Mark chapter 13, verses 34 through 37. And I want you to think about who is the man going away assemble for? Who are the servants assemble for? And who is the doorkeeper assemble for? The parable says, It's like a man going away. He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge. Each one is given a task to do. He tells the one at the door to keep watch. So keep watch. You do not know when the owner of the house will come back. It may be in the evening or at midnight. It may be when the rooster crows or at dawn. He may come suddenly. So do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone, watch. Okay, so if you would like to pause and reread that parable and discuss it with someone and think about what you think that it means, and then you can come back and listen to the explanation. So remember, some people did not understand when Jesus taught in parables, and he would sometimes explain the meanings about his parables, and he would usually explain the meanings to his disciples. But we need the Holy Spirit to help us understand some of the truths that we find in the Bible. And we can ask the Holy Spirit through prayer to help us understand. So when you believe in, trust, and follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Okay, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to live inside of people when they ask him to be their savior. The Holy Spirit guides believers to comprehend or understand what we read about in the Bible. So sometimes Jesus would explain the meaning of the parables, but this time he didn't. So this is a situation where we can study, we can ask the Holy Spirit for guidance and figure out what Jesus was teaching. So in this parable, Jesus teaches about how we should joyfully wait in expectation of his return. We should be excited about his return and we should be living our lives in a way that gets us ready for Jesus' return. So the man going away who leaves his house is a symbol of Jesus. This is a symbol of Jesus leaving the earth and going to heaven. The servants in the parable are a symbol of all believers in Jesus. The parable says that the man put the servants in charge of his house, and they all had jobs to do. So what do you think that means? Jesus puts his followers in charge of the earth and he gives us special gifts and jobs to do in order to lead other people to him. The doorkeeper in the parable is a symbol of you. The parable says that the man tells the one at the door to keep watch. This means that Jesus wants you to keep watch while you are waiting for him to return. Jesus said in verse 36, do not let him find you sleeping. Does that mean that we can't ever sleep? No, that is not what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is that as we live our lives, we must always be ready for him to return. He can come at any time. That does not mean that you cannot ever sleep because your body needs sleep and God made your body the way that it is. So this parable is a warning to believers in Jesus to be ready for his return. Someday Jesus will come to take all believers to heaven to be with him forever. Some ways that we can get ready for Jesus to return. We can make sure that we have put our trust in Jesus and we've asked him to be our Savior. We can make sure that we are studying his word, the Bible, and living by the instructions that we find in it. We can make sure that we are using the special gifts that God has given us to lead other people to Jesus. And we can make sure that we are showing God's love in everything that we do and to everyone that we meet. Jesus will return one day and he wants us to be ready. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you for your word, the Bible. Thank you for the parables that Jesus used to teach big lessons. Please help us to live our lives joyfully waiting for your return. We know that people who have trusted in Jesus and are followers of Jesus will be taken to heaven to live with you forever. We thank you for this amazing truth. If there is anyone listening who has not accepted your free gift of salvation, please give them the courage to take that step. And if there's anyone listening who has any questions about you, please give them the courage to ask. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' sweet name, Amen. Next time we will be talking about the parables of the treasure and the pearl. Until then, God bless. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Seeds of Truth Podcast. For more free Bible resources, visit seeds of truth ministries.com.