^16 (A)When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and ^[a]He saw ^(B)the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ^17 (C)And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ^(D)“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

⁵⁶ Your father Abraham ^(A)rejoiced to see My day, ^(B)and he saw it and was glad.”

The Purpose of Parables^(A)

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because ^(B)it has been given to you to know the ^[a]mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ^12 (C)For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

⁴ And my speech and my preaching ^(A)were not with persuasive words of ^[a]human wisdom, ^(B)but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the ^(C)power of God.

Spiritual Wisdom

⁶ However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ^[b]ordained before the ages for our glory, ⁸ which none of the rulers of this age knew; for ^(D)had they known, they would not have ^(E)crucified the Lord of glory.

⁹ But as it is written:

¹⁰ But ^(G)God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. ¹¹ For what man knows the things of a man except the ^(H)spirit of the man which is in him? ^(I)Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but ^(J)the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the ^[c]Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ^14 (K)But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.