Ears to hear.

Jesus was the ultimate evangelist.  In fact Jesus was UNLIKE any evangelist we know of.  He used a style of preaching the word of God that has been lost to us for centuries.  Jesus' style of evangelizing, to put it bluntly, was to BEAT AROUND THE BUSH.  BAHAMIANS understand this phraseology to mean a person who does not get straight to the point but skirts around a particular issue, or a person who does not come out and say plainly what they mean.  JESUS WAS MASTER AT THIS.  His evangelistic style of choice was to use PARABLES.  Now of late Christians have taken to define a parable as a earthly story with a heavenly meaning, but that is not entirely true because parables were used longed before Jesus came to the earth.  Parables can be more properly defined as:

A statement or comment that conveys a meaning INDIRECTLY by the use of comparison or analogy.

When preaching the gospel to the crowds JESUS NEVER TOOK THE DIRECT APPROACH.  In fact his disciples asked him one day, 'Why do you ALWAYS speak to the CROWD in parables'.  They came to see this because it was his custom to preach to the crowd in parables and when he and the disciples were alone he would plainly tell them the meaning of the parable.  Again I say that this is REMARKABLE.  Preaching the gospel today is so IN YOUR FACE!  We feel the need to GET THE MESSAGE ACROSS to these no good sinners.  In fact being bold is defined today by how fearless one can be when confronting some soul with the word of GOD in a NO NONSENSE hooting and hollering, spiting and kicking fashion.  But our example, Jesus, came along and throws out a story with some CRYPTIC meaning and he called THAT preaching.  No man Jesus, you need to to TAKE IT TO THEM IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS.  This makes me wonder 'who is truly our teacher'.  

What is even MORE remarkable than Jesus' use of indirectly preaching the gospel is what he would say to those he preached to afterwards.  The phrase was:

Matthew 11:15
15He who has ears to hear,let him hear.
Mark 4:9
 9 And He was saying, He who has ears to hear,let him hear.
Mark 4:23
23If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.
Luke 8:8
"Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

This last verse is interesting because it shows that Jesus would make this statement often during his parables.  But is this some cryptic code with some supernatural ingredient to make the people understand?  No, it SIMPLY means just what it says.  Jesus was making his appeal in parable, but the understanding of the parable was ONLY given TO A FEW.  Notice it does not say that the meaning of the parable is given to those who could figure it out , or those who study hard or those who understand the Greek text, no, the understanding of the parable was given to those who ALREADY had ears to hear.  Hear is this understanding put simply:

Jesus came to earth with a message called the gospel of the kingdom.  That message was INTENDED to be heard by all but it was NOT INTENDED to be understood by all.  Jesus spoke the message in a parable form so as to NOT make it's meaning clear to all, but ONLY to the few who GOD HAD CHOSEN to understand and believe the message.  Upon hearing the parable those who were in the crowd who God had chosen would understand.

Jesus did not use any soft music neither did he have the singers sing 'just as I am without one plea' just one more time.  His method was simple: use parables, and whoever God WANTED to come to him WOULD come to him and to the rest the parable would become a testimony against them.