Whenever Jesus spoke to crowds, he spoke in riddles and parables. Then later, those who wanted to understand the riddle would approach Jesus and ask for an explanation. I think the point of the riddle was to inspire curiosity. It got people to follow Jesus instead of following a bunch of lifeless rules.
Jesus at one point in His ministry called us to be the salt of the earth. My opinion is that we can look at being the salt of the earth as like salt in the mouth. It tastes good in small quantities, and it makes us thirsty for water.
The way we speak should make people yearn for Jesus, the One who gives Living Water.
If Jesus is truly your Lord and Savior, then He is surely integrated into your very identity and personality. You really have to start with that idea, the reality deep in your own soul. If you don't actually have this relationship, you really don't need to share the good news of Jesus, because you don't really believe it.
We must first express the yearning and great thirst we have, and let people know who quenched that thirst. We must express that we were slaves, and now we are joyously free. This is a reality no one can object to - your own story of how you came to be a child of God. (More on that later.)
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What is wrong with an expository, 3 point sermon? Nothing, it just doesn't work that well. Expository sermons were invented by the Greeks as a form of rhetoric, which is the art of public speaking. It was meant to organize thoughts and make them easy to remember. These sermons were effectively used when Christianity began to battle atheism, a time when Christianity tried to look like the more rational choice over atheism.
Although the modern era did see these types of sermons used with great effect, we no longer live in the modern era. I would say that most of America is in a postmodern mindset now, which means that science and reason are not the ultimate truths or realities of the culture.
Instead, many regard personal stories as absolute truth. These are what you see used by politicians and talk shows alike to either sell something or get you to vote for someone. They are powerful. True stories are especially amazing. True personal stories aren't everything, but they are a start in having spiritual conversations.
This post is about "teasers", though. Think about teasers as positive gossip. It's a whisper. It's a hint. It's a small taste. Think about something you were really attracted to in the past. You saw a glimmer of something interesting, but you went after it and delved deeper without anyone pressuring you. You KNOW you do this with shopping, hobbies, ideas, etc. In the same way, start to think of these spiritual conversations not as being battles, but as being ways for God to enter into the passions and curiosities of a person.
It's very hard to come up with examples of teasers, but perhaps something like, "I heard God speak to me". It's interesting, strange and yet powerful. Jesus used things like, "I am the bread of life", "I am the good shepherd", "I am the vine and you are the branches". Each of these sayings were confusing and inspired a long discussion.
This is an interesting thing to note from Mark 4, mentioned at the beginning of the passage. In Mark 4, the parable of the sower is given by Jesus to a crowd. He basically just talks about seed being sown and how the seed is either eaten, outgrown by weeds, planted in terrible soil, or planted in good soil. And that is ONLY thing the crowd heard. It wasn't until the disciples approached Jesus and asked for an explanation that they got the deeper meaning of how the seed is the word of God.
Do you see how Jesus chose to reveal himself and his teachings to people ONLY when they actually wanted to understand? If we follow Jesus, then this is the way to go.... teasers, riddles, confusing but tasty conversation.
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Religious word of the day - Amen. It's a Hebrew word meaning "truly" or "may it be so". In my opinion, it's kind of like a strong "yeah!" of agreement.
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